Last month, the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office sent a report detailing the fraudulent activities conducted by National Rally (RN) candidate Marine Le Pen to the French courts. The report says that she, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, and people close to her or her party have totally embezzled almost 617, 379.77 euros from the Parliament of Strasbourg, when she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), between 2004 and 2017.
Mediapart revealed that the damning document from the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) said that she had personally embezzled 136,993.99 euros. The outlet said that the report was sent to the French Courts on March 11. The Paris prosecutor’s office reportedly said that “it is being analyzed.”
Three other members, with connections to her or her political party, have also been accused of the same charges and have been directly implicated by Olaf. They include Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen, who is accused of embezzling 303,545.76 euros, Louis Aliot, who was her former partner-companion, who is accused of embezzling 2,493.22 euros. Bruno Gollnisch, a member of RN is accused of of embezzling 43,257 euros and the far-right group Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) is accused of embezzlement of 131,089 euros.
The report by Olaf mentioned the following charges
fraud
forgery
breach of trust
misappropriation of public funds for national or personal political purposes
over invoicing
fictitious services for the benefit of companies associated with the Front National (FN) a predecessor of RN
conflicts of interest.
The French investigative website contacted Marine Le Pen for comment. Her party lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut said that Marine Le Pen denied that she had done anything wrong and had also questioned the timing of the report but didn’t say anything else at the time of publication. Olaf has also not responded, as yet, when asked for comment, though Monday is a holiday in Belgium.
The French investigative outlet also said that Marine Le Pen and the party have used an old slogan which says: “Clean hands and heads held high.” This slogan might be in jeopardy, after the allegations of embezzlement and fraud in the Olaf report have come to light.
(Photo/Credit: Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right French National Rally party, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in March 2017- Mikail KlimityevTASS)
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