Tony Estanguet, on January 23 in Paris. YOAN VALAT (EFE)
The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the remuneration of Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organizing Committee of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, as reported by a source close to the case to Agence France Presse. Less than six months before the international event, the former athlete is in the spotlight for having received an annual remuneration of 270,000 euros gross until 2020, a figure that should have been lower under the legal statute of the Committee, local media report. The organizational body defends the legality of its manager’s salary.
The judicial police have been in charge of the investigation since last week, the source told the French news agency. Contacted by El País, the prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the case. “We do not wish to communicate about the opening of a possible investigation,” she said. The remuneration of He will drownformer Olympic champion and three-time Olympic champion, had been released by the Organizing Committee itself in 2018 and its figure could fluctuate by 20% depending on certain criteria.
The remuneration, however, should have been lower due to the legal status of the Committee, which was created in December 2017 as a law 1901 type association, according to French media. The leaders of this type of association see their remuneration limited to considerably lower levels. The Organizing Committee has expressed its surprise and affirms that the ceiling does not apply to its instance but to non-profit associations that do not have commercial activity and, therefore, do not pay taxes. “Unlike non-profit associations, for which there is a maximum limit on the remuneration of directors (…), Paris 2024 is subject to VAT under common law,” he told the newspaper Le Monde.
It has also stressed to local media that its president’s remuneration is very strictly regulated. “The first board of directors of the organization committee decided and validated on March 2, 2018 the remuneration of Tony Estanguet, in his absence, in a sovereign and independent manner,” he stressed. Regarding the amount of 270,000 euros gross per year, the Committee has stressed that the figure was decided on the proposal of a “remuneration committee” made up of “independent experts.” The “payment modalities” were also validated by the general economic and financial controller of the State, the instance has insisted, recalling that it undergoes an annual audit.
Estanguet, 45, had already been in the spotlight. In October, the emblematic weekly The chained Duck He claimed that the Olympic medalist had created a company that billed “non-commercial services” to the Organizing Committee. At the beginning of 2021, the French Anti-Corruption Agency had warned that there were “risks” of lack of probity and “conflicts of interest.” In one of the documents, the agency cited the case of the Estanguet company and described it as an “atypical setup within the framework of a Law 1901 association.”
French justice had already opened three other financial investigations into the organization of the Olympic Games. The investigations have been opened due to suspicions of embezzlement of funds in the awarding of contracts and favoritism. Police searched the headquarters of the Organizing Committee in June, a year before the start of the Games, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.
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2024-02-06 15:39:09
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