Police raid consulting agency as part as Paris 2024 probes

Keneo was linked to the Paris Olympics candidacy committee before the French capital was awarded the 2024 Summer Games.

 A view shows the Pulse building, the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organizing committee, as a police search is currently underway, in Saint-Denis near Paris, France, June 20, 2023.  (photo credit: STEPHANIE LECOCQ/REUTERS)
A view shows the Pulse building, the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organizing committee, as a police search is currently underway, in Saint-Denis near Paris, France, June 20, 2023.
(photo credit: STEPHANIE LECOCQ/REUTERS)

The headquarters of the Keneo sports consulting agency have been searched by French police in the course of investigations into alleged corruption surrounding the Paris 2024 Olympics, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

Officials at Paris 2024 and Keneo did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on Wednesday.

The judicial source, who has direct knowledge of the matter but is not at liberty to discuss it, told Reuters that Keneo's headquarters were raided on Wednesday morning.

Keneo linked to Paris Olympics candidacy committee

Keneo was linked to the Paris Olympics candidacy committee before the French capital was awarded the 2024 Summer Games in 2017.

 Olympic and Paralympic mascots stand next to a countdown clock showing 500 days left until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Bobigny near Paris, France, March 14, 2023 (credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)
Olympic and Paralympic mascots stand next to a countdown clock showing 500 days left until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Bobigny near Paris, France, March 14, 2023 (credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

On Tuesday, the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organizing committee and those of its infrastructure partner were searched by police as part of investigations into alleged embezzlement of public funds and favoritism, prosecutors said.

The national financial prosecutor's office (PNF) said on Tuesday the Paris 2024 headquarters were raided amid a preliminary investigation launched in 2017 into contracts made by the Summer Games' organizing committee.

The headquarters of SOLIDEO, the public body responsible for delivering Olympic and Paralympic infrastructure, were also being searched amid a preliminary inquiry dating to last year, after an audit by the Anti-Corruption Agency, the PNF added.

"Paris 2024 is cooperating actively with investigators to facilitate their enquiries and provide answers to all the questions raised as quickly as possible," a Paris 2024 spokesperson said on Tuesday.