{"id":1443362,"date":"2022-04-18T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1443362"},"modified":"2022-04-18T10:45:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T14:45:20","slug":"convenient-timing-eu-fraud-agency-investigates-le-pen-ahead-of-french-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/convenient-timing-eu-fraud-agency-investigates-le-pen-ahead-of-french-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Convenient Timing: EU Fraud Agency Investigates Le Pen Ahead of French Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fconvenient-timing-eu-fraud-agency-investigates-le-pen-ahead-of-french-election%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1443362&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1239956430-640x335-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">PARIS (AP) \u2013 Paris prosecutors are studying a report by the European Union\u2019s fraud agency accusing French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other members of her nationalist party of misusing public funds while serving in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>The report was disclosed by French investigative news site Mediapart days before Le Pen faces incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a runoff election Sunday that could determine Europe\u00b4s future direction. Le Pen\u2019s party National Rally seeks to diminish the EU\u00b4s powers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Party lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut said she denies wrongdoing, and questioned the timing of the Mediapart publication, just before the presidential runoff.<\/p>\n<p>Macron, a pro-EU centrist, leads Le Pen in polls ahead of Sunday\u00b4s vote, though the race is tighter than when they faced off in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>EU fraud agency OLAF submitted its report last month to the Paris prosecutor\u00b4s office, which is \u201cin the course of analyzing it,\u201d the prosecutor\u00b4s office said Monday. No formal investigation has yet been opened, and no further details were released.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>According to Mediapart, the OLAF report found that Le Pen, her firebrand father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and other party members who served in the European Parliament used 617,000 euros of public money for \u201cfictitious\u201d reasons, notably for the benefit of companies close to the party. The fraud office is reportedly seeking reimbursement of the funds and potential fraud and embezzlement charges.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shock Poll Puts Marine Le Pen Ahead of Macron in French Presidential Second Round<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ydmWYRwp3o\">https:\/\/t.co\/ydmWYRwp3o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1512354708614262789?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>OLAF accused party members of \u201cgrave violations\u201d and said the \u201cinappropriate behavior\u201d of members of National Rally \u2013 formerly called the National Front \u2013 \u201cimperiled the reputation of the Union\u00b4s institutions,\u201d according to Mediapart.<\/p>\n<p>OLAF didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday, a holiday in Belgium and several European countries.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not the first time Le Pen and her party were accused of misusing EU funds. Among several legal affairs that have dogged her party, Le Pen was handed preliminary charges in 2018 based on a separate investigation by OLAF accusing National Rally members of using aides on the European Parliament\u00b4s payroll for the party\u00b4s political activity.<\/p>\n<p>Le Pen, who served in the European Parliament from 2004-2017, met with supporters Monday in the Normandy town of Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. She and Macron face a crucial debate on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">French Bishops Silent on Presidential Election as More and More Catholics Support Le Pen <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/puAZs1cTPW\">https:\/\/t.co\/puAZs1cTPW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1515967603033976833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5 class=\"western\"><em><span>Follow Breitbart London on Facebook:<\/span><\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BreitbartLondon\/\"><span>Breitbart London<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS (AP) \u2013 Paris prosecutors are studying a report by the European Union\u2019s fraud agency accusing French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other members of her nationalist party<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1443362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}