The Paris prosecutor’s office announced its intention to bring to court the former leader of the French far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen and almost three dozen of her associates on charges of misuse of EU funds.
The case against Le Pen and her associates dates back to 2015 when she was a member of the European Parliament and is related to suspicions of misuse of EU funds to pay non-existent assistants, France24 reported.
Paris prosecutors claim that since 2004, MEPs of the National Front (the party’s former name), including Le Pen and her father, have been involved in a scheme to employ assistants fictitiously.
Thus, according to the European Parliament, the defendants embezzled €6.8 million between 2009 and 2017.
Le Pen’s party says it has fully repaid the €9 million Russian loan
Paris prosecutors are demanding the trial of 11 MEPs, 12 of their assistants and four other National Rally employees, and the party itself is accused of concealing the offences.
If found guilty, both Le Pen, the father and the daughter, and the other defendants face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of twice the amount of the stolen funds.
In addition, Le Pen may be deprived of the right to hold office for up to 10 years, jeopardising her plans to run for the French presidency for the fourth time in 2027.
In 2021, the French far-right populist leader was found to have abused €339,000 – she registered a fictitious assistant to receive budgetary compensation for him, and the court then forced Marine Le Pen to return the illegally obtained funds.
The recent leak of data from the hacked emails of Putin’s henchman Alexander Babakov shed light on the Kremlin’s efforts to promote its interests in France and its ties to French politicians, primarily Marine Le Pen.
Since 2012, Alexandr Babakov has been Vladimir Putin’s “special representative” in charge of relations with Russian organisations abroad, making him one of the key men in the Kremlin’s networks of influence in Europe, InformNapalm reported.
According to Babakov’s correspondence, it turns out that he was responsible for organising visits by French politicians and negotiations with high-ranking Russian officials. Babakov was the key man in the talks between Le Pen’s National Front and the Kremlin on the Russian loan to the French far-right party in 2014.
In her letter, seen in the leaked emails, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is writing to Mr Babakov asking for assistance. Le Pen, as a member of the European Parliament, requests a meeting with Sergei Naryshkin – one of Putin’s closest allies and current Russian spy chief.
Aleksandr Babakov arranged a meeting for Le Pen with senior Kremlin officials and with Putin. Moreover, he sent Marine Le Pen an official letter of invitation.
In May, Marine Le Pen was questioned at the National Assembly in the latest hearing of the Commission on Foreign Interference over a €9.4 million loan taken out by her party, the National Front (now National Rally), with a Russian bank.
Le Pen defended herself before a parliamentary commission of inquiry, claiming not to be under Russian influence. Marine Le Pen denied any allegiance to Russia, saying no facts were established with certainty.
Did Russia use Marine Le Pen in exchange for a loan of over 9 million euros in 2014? The question that the hearing had to answer. It lasted nearly four hours, with the same answer hammered home each time by the three-time presidential candidate: “The arrival of a loan never changed one iota of the position and ideas that were ours”, she claimed.
The French far-right leader kept close ties with Putin for many years. Le Pen had declared her admiration for Putin, support for his policies and Crimea annexation, despite Moscow’s violations of human rights and international law.
Marine Le Pen distanced herself from Vladimir Putin after he decided to invade Ukraine. Keeping ties with the Kremlin could lead to a decline in popularity as the French condemn Russia’s war.
However, Le Pen’s declarations on the Russia-Ukraine war still benefited the argument that Russia is trying to push in Europe. She criticized the weapons supply to Ukraine. Le Pen repeated fear-mongering about a possible global war outbreak.
