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French police investigate Paris Olympics chief over pay, committee expresses ‘surprise’
French investigators have opened a legal probe into the pay of Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics organising committee, a source close to the case told AFP on Tuesday.
Issued on: 06/02/2024 – 11:19
1 min
French President of the Paris Organising Committee of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Tony Estanguet answers journalists after a visit at the Paris 2024 Olympic Village on December 1, 2023.
French President of the Paris Organising Committee of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Tony Estanguet answers journalists after a visit at the Paris 2024 Olympic Village on December 1, 2023. © Franck Fife / AFP
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FRANCE 24
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The investigation by magistrates specialised in financial crimes began “last week” and will look into the manner in which Estanguet receives his pay as chief executive of the organising committee, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Paris Olympics organising committee has expressed surprise that the salary of its president is reportedly being investigated by the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. The financial prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
Estanguet is paid €270,000-euro per year pre-tax, with possible bonuses amounting to another 20 percent, according to the last publicly available figures for his salary.
According to a report in October last year from the investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, Estanguet uses his own company to bill the organising committee monthly, instead of drawing a salary.
The arrangement is to avoid a salary cap imposed on charities with the same status as the organising committee.
News of the probe from the magistrates is an embarrassing development just as Estanguet is seeking to focus attention on preparations for the July 26-August 11 Games.
The triple gold medal-winning Olympic canoeist, 45, had so far been spared the legal problems that have embroiled other members of the Paris organising committee.
The Olympics have been repeatedly tarnished by corruption in the past, either over the manner in which the Games were awarded or through the lucrative construction and services contracts that are part of the event.
In October, the organisers said French financial prosecutors again came to their headquarters to investigate suspicions of favouritism, conflicts of interest and misuse of funds in the awarding of contracts.
The headquarters were first searched in June.
Financial investigators have been zeroing in on 20 or so of the many hundreds of business contracts that Olympic organisers have signed as they race to prepare the French capital for 10,500 athletes and millions of spectators.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)
