French investigators searched the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics organizers' headquarters on Tuesday in relation to a corruption investigation. Investigators are looking into contracts that have been linked to the Summer Games, according to the Associated Press.
The Paris organizing committee released a statement in which they revealed that an official investigation was underway at their headquarters in Saint-Denis. The committee stated that it was cooperating with investigators throughout the process.
On Tuesday, the raids were linked to a pair of preliminary investigations related to the Olympics that weren't previously revealed to the public, according to the AP. One of those probes began in 2017, which happened to be the same year that the International Olympic Committee chose Paris as the 2024 host city, and the second investigation began in 2022.
This isn't the first time that corruption allegations have been brought up related to the Olympics. There were accusations of vote buying related to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo that wound up taking place in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, several IOC members were removed due to the corruption allegations. Tsunekazu Takeda stepped down as the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee in March 2019 while he was being investigated for his involvement in a vote-buying scandal.
Saccage 2024, which is an anti-Olympic group that has accused the Olympic Games of causing ecological and social damage in the nations and cities where they take place, says it was "very pleased" when the Paris Olympic organizers' headquarters being raided on Tuesday. was raided as part of the investigation.
"For us, an event of Olympic proportions cannot be held without corruption," the group said in a statement. "It's the size of the event that makes it necessary, whatever the country."
The 2017 French probe is looking into alleged embezzlement of public funds, as well as an unspecified contract that was reached by Paris organizers, according to the prosecutor's office.
Meanwhile, the 2022 investigation resulted in an audit by the French Anti-Corruption Agency. The prosecutor's office revealed that members were suspected of having a conflict of interest when it came to several contracts that were reached by the organizing committee and Solideo, which is the public body that is in charge of the Olympic infrastructure.
Solideo, which is a construction company overseeing building projects related to the Olympic Games including the athletes' village in Saint-Denis, also had its offices raided during the investigation.
In a statement, the IOC announced that the governing body was informed by organizers that they are cooperating with authorities. At this time, they wouldn't be commenting any further related to the matter.
The Paris Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 26, 2024 until August 11, 2024.
