Paris city hall offices were raided by police on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged embezzlement of public funds following Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s trip to Tahiti last year in preparation for the Olympic Games hosted by the French capital. this summer, they said on Tuesday, judicial sources quoted by the French press, News.ro reported.

Inspectors from the financial brigade and magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) searched Paris City Hall and its annexes as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s controversial trip to Tahiti in October 2023, a source said. said the judge for LCI-TF1, confirming the information that first appeared in Le Monde.

The investigation was opened last November following a complaint filed by the anti-corruption association AC!. The allegations relate to bribery and embezzlement of public funds and relate to “a trip to Tahiti by Mrs. Ann Hidalgo and a delegation from the City Hall of Paris,” a court source said.

Socialite Anne Hidalgo in November responded to criticism of her trip to French Polynesia by publishing a list of meetings she attended and, while she did not visit the venue for the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing event in Tahiti, said she would on sports.

Hidalgo’s visit was presented as an inspection of the facility, but no photos were released and his political opponents said it was actually a vacation.

This investigation is “a natural consequence of the report sent to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office and was continued today by the voluntary provision by the municipality of the necessary additional documents,” the Paris municipality said in a press release, adding that it had “already voluntarily provided supporting documents” regarding the trips .

According to the anti-corruption association that filed the complaint, the mayor of Paris “used this opportunity (a trip to French Polynesia – no) to visit his daughter, who lives on an island near Tahiti.” She was accompanied by two deputies, as well as her husband, the complaint states. “The question immediately arises as to who paid for this trip,” the association said.

According to the City Hall of Paris, the transport costs of the six-person Paris delegation (three councilors and three employees) amounted to 40,955 euros, and the costs of accommodation and meals – 18,545 euros.

The ethics commission of the mayor’s office has already exonerated the mayor. The panel “found that Ann Hidalgo took a business trip to New Caledonia and Polynesia, financed by the local authorities in Paris, between the mornings of October 16-21, 2023, and a private trip from the afternoon of October 21 to November 5, 2023, paid for his personal funds”.

The Olympic Games will be held from July 26 to August 11.