The European Parliament intends to recover the amount “improperly paid” to Marine Le Pen

“The European Parliament seizes OLAF (European anti-fraud office) after discovering some irregularities” rebuked the far-right candidate for the French presidential election and three other former MEPs, one of its leaders, told AFP on Sunday. Explained.

“In total we are talking about an improper payment of 617,000 euros,” he said. “We are now going to proceed with recovery from interested parties in the coming weeks”.

The matter was disclosed by the French news site Mediapart. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that it had received Olaf’s report on 11 March indicting Ms Le Pen.

The document, of which Mediapart publishes extracts, deals with charges that political groups can use in the context of their mandate as MEPs and Marine Le Pen and his relatives for national political purposes, for personal expenses or profit. to be used for services. of commercial companies close to his party, the National Rally (RN) and the far-right parliamentary group Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENL).

The other three former MEPs are his father Jean-Marie Le Pen, his former partner Louis Eliot and Bruno Gollnish, RN and members of the National Office of the ENL.

The office accuses him of embezzlement with Mrs Le Pen of approximately 600,000 euros, of which it recommends reimbursement.

According to the report, the National Rally candidate may have personally embezzled about 137,000 euros of public money from Strasbourg’s parliament when she was MEP between 2004 and 2017.

Olaf’s investigation has been open since 2016 and Ms Le Pen was questioned by mail in March 2021, her lawyer Me Rodolphe Bosselut told AFP.

Marine Le Pen campaigns for the second round of the French presidential election to be held on April 24. He will face outgoing President, centrist Emmanuel Macron.

The candidate has been on trial since June 2017 in an investigation conducted in Paris on suspicion of fake jobs in the European Parliament of party aides.

He has been charged with “embezzlement of public money” and “participation” in this crime as part of the investigation.