The Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 (COJOP) is under siege. The wave of searches conducted in June as part of two preliminary investigations headed by the Parquet National Financier (France's national financial prosecutor, PNF) has raised the possibility that the event's key figures would be implicated even before the competition begins.

These dramatic anti-corruption police raids took place at the COJOP offices and the Société de Livraison des Ouvrages Olympiques (SOLIDEO), a governmental entity in charge of infrastructure.

This was a "crushing blow" and "bad publicity a year before the Games," as COJOP's lawyer Charlotte Plantin acknowledged, "even though the committee is under scrutiny and has endeavored to be exemplary."

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Following tentative findings from the Agence Française Anticorruption (France's anti-corruption agency, AFA) and a report to the judiciary by a Paris councilor, a preliminary inquiry into suspected irregularities and conflicts of interest connected to public contracts was launched in 2022. An initial criminal procedure that began in 2017 is also gaining traction.

Several contracts awarded by the Paris bidding committee (GIP 2024) and COJOP are being investigated for illegal conflicts of interest, favoritism, and theft of public funds. They also concentrate on the conflicts of interest that resulted from the departures of Etienne Thobois (current CEO of COJOP) and Edouard Donnelly (executive director of operations) from their former business Keneo, which they co-founded in 2008.

Investigation into files 

Thobois and Donnelly's residences were searched. Investigators also seized Keneo's archives, which were initially acquired in 2016 by Japanese corporation Dentsu and then, in 2021, by entrepreneur Vincent de Bary, covering the years 2012-2020.

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These investigations stem from a report filed in 2017 by entrepreneur André Aubouy, who was a failed bidder for a contract with the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF, the National Olympic Committee of France) for the 2012 London Olympics. A person familiar with the case added, "There was a privileged relationship between Keneo and the CNOSF. The call for tenders was just there for grandstanding."

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Another person close to the probe said that the present investigation is looking into "the conditions of award, retraction, and compensation for this contract." The PNF is also investigating Thobois' employment as CEO of GIP 2024 in 2015, as well as the contracts signed by the bidding committee and Keneo in the aftermath. 

The PNF is also looking into the controversial recruitment of Donnelly by Paris 2024 in November 2022 after he sold his shares in RNK, a company he founded with his brother in 2020. Shortly before the sale, RNK had been awarded the €19 million Olympic torch relay contract through a company in which it holds half the shares.

Could the discomfort brought by the PNF investigations go away?

The Paris 2024 Ethics Committee, which was established in 2018 with promises of independence, authorized Donnelly's recruitment in October 2022. However, the committee required him to step aside and refrain from making any decisions or giving instructions concerning the RNK.

"After a very thorough investigation, the Ethics Committee issued a favorable opinion with reservations, which it verified were respected," explained Jean-Marc Sauvé, former vice president of the Conseil d'État (France's highest administrative court) and chairman of the Paris 2024 Ethics Committee.

COJOP has been attempting to defuse the Keneo-RNK controversy since the searches, citing audits by the Cour des Comptes (the national administrative court entrusted with conducting financial and legislative audits of public organizations), the AFA, and the statutory auditors.

"I don't see what COJOP could have done better in terms of containment [and] recusal with an Ethics Committee that is an ultra-solid safeguard," said lawyer Charlotte Plantin.

As some people close to the situation have pointed out, the dispute casts a sharp light on "inbreeding" within the "tiny, unstructured world" of sporting events. Following the corruption scandals associated with the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 editions, it has revived a continuous melancholy surrounding the Olympic Games organization.

The chairman further admitted that the Ethics Committee, which "has no means of investigation or search," "is not competent" for the years before 2018, "especially the bidding process and the award of the 2024 Games."

The International Olympic Committee remains quiet while these investigations are ongoing and is only "welcoming COJOP's cooperation with the authorities." Between now and the Games, the discomfort brought on by the PNF investigations is not likely to go away. There might be new legal fronts created.