The president of the organizing committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) in Paris, Tony Estanguet, is the target of an investigation recently opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office and relating to the conditions of his remuneration, Le Monde learned on Tuesday from a close source of the file, confirming information from Agence France-Presse (AFP). The investigation was entrusted to the economic crime repression brigade, within the Parisian judicial police.
Tony Estanguet received annual remuneration of 270,000 euros gross until 2020, according to figures communicated by Cojop in 2018. But Cojop being a 1901 law type association, the remuneration of its directors is capped by law at significantly lower levels.
According to a recent article in Le Canard chainé, the former sportsman would have created a company which invoices “non-commercial services” to Cojop, which he manages. Which questions the control of “the reality and quality of the services” carried out by the Estanguet company, the newspaper continued in October. “The framework for the remuneration of the president of the organizing committee is very strictly regulated,” Cojop reacted to AFP on Tuesday, expressing its “astonishment” at the announcement of the opening of the investigation.
Tony Estanguet’s remuneration “was decided and validated by the first board of directors of the organizing committee, on March 2, 2018, which ruled in his absence, in a sovereign and independent manner”, specifies Cojop. The amount of remuneration was decided on the proposal of a “remuneration committee” composed of “independent experts responsible for ensuring the relevance of our remuneration policy”, adds Cojop. “Its payment terms were validated by the general economic and financial controller, after consultation with Urssaf.”
“The amount of invoices inherent to this remuneration is subject to an annual audit” by an “internal audit unit independent of the executive of the organizing committee and an examination by the remuneration committee”, says again the body, specifying that this “approach does not correspond to any legal obligation but responds to a desire for transparency”.
At the start of 2021, two reports from the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) on the organization of the Games noted “risks of breaches of probity” and “conflicts of interest”. In one of these reports, the AFA mentioned the case of Tony Estanguet’s company, noting an “atypical set-up within the framework of an association under the 1901 law”, which “is not without its difficulties”. , recalls The Chained Duck.