PARIS – French police searched the home and offices of current Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Thursday as part of a long-running corruption and influence-peddling investigation linked to her time as an MEP between 2009 and 2019.
Dati is suspected of having received money from the French energy group GDF Suez, now known as Engie, in exchange for promoting the company’s interests in the European Parliament. At that time, she was a substitute member of the industry and energy committee and is alleged to have proposed several amendments that benefited the gas sector.
Investigators say she received two bank transfers of €149,500 each in October 2010 and January 2011, paid by GDF Suez via a French law firm. After French media reported on the case, Engie launched an internal investigation earlier this summer, saying it had identified how the payments were made.
Financial prosecutors are also examining whether Dati carried out assignments on behalf of Qatar while serving as an MEP, to present the country in a positive light to French and European officials or to the media.
The culture minister is “presumed innocent”, government spokeswoman Maud Brégeon said, adding she had “every place in government”. “There is no issue,” she added.
Paris mayor hopeful Dati to face trial over corruption charges next September
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The searches come at the worst possible time for Dati. She is already due to stand trial at the Paris criminal court next September on charges of corruption and influence peddling. In that case, she is accused of having received €900,000 from the carmaker Renault while serving as an MEP.
Selected by the right-wing party Les Républicains to try to wrest control of Paris from the left at next March’s elections. Dati, who is for now the mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement, is currently polling at 27% in the first round, compared with 32% for a list bringing together most left-wing parties.
Reacting to Thursday’s searches, the socialist party’s candidate in Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, said he wanted to “let the justice system do its job”.
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