PARIS (Reuters) – French prosecutors said Sunday they were considering a report by the European Union’s anti-fraud agency accusing far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and members of her party of embezzling thousands of euros in EU funds.
Le Pen is challenging Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election with opinion polls showing that Macron is ahead in the second round of the second round on Sunday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has confirmed that it is investigating a report it received from the European Anti-Fraud Agency (OLAF) on 11 March.
Investigative website Mediapart wrote on Saturday that an OLAF report claimed that Le Pen had misappropriated 140,000 euros in public money with party members, diverting a total of 617,000 euros. No one is accused of direct profit, but of asking for EU funds for staff costs and events.
Le Pen’s office could not be immediately opened for comment.
“The French will not be fooled by attempts by the European Union and the European institutions (…) to interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marin Le Pen,” National Rally President Jordan Bardella told Europe 1 radio.
He said his party had filed two legal complaints against OLAF and would file a third in response to the report.
Speaking to BFM TV, Le Pen’s lawyer Rodolphe Boselut said his client denied the allegations. He said she had not yet been questioned and neither he nor Le Pen had seen the OLAF report.
Le Pen has been under investigation since 2017 as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants.
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(Report by Gilles Guillaume; writing by John Irish; editing by Raisa Kasolowski)
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