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For the third straight time, the Summer Olympics organizers are being investigated for corruption.
After vote-buying allegations linked to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Games removed several members of the International Olympic Committee from the organization, French investigators searched the headquarters of Paris Olympic organizers on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
The probe was into suspected corruption, per the national financial prosecutor's office.
The Paris organizing committee said in a statement that a search was under way at their headquarters, and that “Paris 2024 is cooperating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations,” per AP. The committee said it would not be commenting further on the matter.
The investigation is being led by anti-corruption authorities in the French capital, and are linked to two preliminary investigations related to the Paris Olympics that had not previously been made public. The official who spoke from the financial prosecutor's office on Tuesday was not authorized to be publicly named according to prosecutor's office policy, per AP.
“According to Le Monde newspaper, raids also took place at the offices of the public body in charge of Olympic infrastructure, and at the headquarters of several companies and consultants linked to the organization of the games,” wrote the news outlet on Tuesday.
The raids are unfolding at the exact same time as the International Olympic Committee executive board began a two-day meeting in Switzerland which was supposed to praise the organizers of the 2024 Olympics for the progress being made.
It's the third probe into Paris after it was picked as the 2024 host — the first was into suspected embezzlement of public funds and favoritism, and the other was for suspected conflict of interest and favoritism involving several contracts reached by the organizing committee and Solideo, the company in charge of Olympic facilities, per AP.
Paris organizers have not yet commented on this latest probe. The Paris Olympic games are scheduled to kick-off on July 26, 2024.
