Sports consultancy targeted in French Olympic raids
Keneo, a Paris-based consulting firm specialising in sports, on Wednesday became the newest target of raids by the French authorities investigating possible Olympic corruption. A source close to the case said that the search was part of one of two preliminary investigations by the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) into the contracts awarded for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The search of the offices in central Paris began on Wednesday morning and ended in the early afternoon. "We have given our full cooperation to their approach," Keneo said in a statement. On Tuesday, police raided the headquarters of the Olympic organising committee, known as Cojo, and the offices of Solideo, the body in charge of the Olympic construction sites. French prosecutors (PNF) confirmed on Tuesday that they had authorised the raids in connection to two separate ongoing investigations into "illegal conflict of interest, misuse of public funds and favouritism". Wednesday's search was part of the first investigation, opened in 2017 by the PNF. Keneo's current CEO, Vincent de Bary, confirmed the search "concerning Keneo's activities before 2020." "At that time," said de Bary, "the company belonged to the Dentsu group," Japan's largest advertising agency, which is suspected in that country of rigging bids for contracts ahead of the Tokyo Olympics-2020. "I bought Keneo from Dentsu in January 2021," said de Bary. "We have no business relating to the organisation of the 2024 Olympics, nor any link with Etienne Thobois and Edouard Donnelly," co-founders of Keneo, he said. Thobois became Cojo's managing director in early 2018. Donnelly became Cojo's executive director of operations last November. French media reported in May 2017, before Paris was officially named host city, that Keneo had already received 2 million euros in contracts from the Paris bidding committee, GIP 2024. At the time, Thobois denied any conflict of interest, saying he had cut ties and sold all his shares in Keneo. Donnelly, head of Keneo between 2015 and 2018, who went on to co-found a rival agency, RNK, declined to comment on Tuesday. The source close to the case specified that RNK was not involved in the contracting process. (AFP)