The 2024 Paris Olympics Are Already Embroiled in a Potential Corruption Scandal

We've got about 400 days until the 2024 Summer Olympics kick off in Paris, marking the third time the global sporting event comes to the City of Light. With a little over a year to go, French authorities are now investigating possible corruption behind the scenes.

An official with France's financial prosecutor's office confirmed to USA Today that police were conducting searches this morning at multiple locations related to the upcoming Games, including the Paris 2024 organizing committee headquarters. The Games themselves addressed the news in a brief statement to Politico. "A police search is currently underway at the headquarters of the Organizing Committee," the statement read. "Paris 2024 is cooperating fully with the investigators to facilitate their investigations.”

The inquiries are tied to two separate troubling allegations of corruption. The first probe actually dates back to 2017, the same year the International Olympic Committee named the French capital the host for the 2024 Games. That investigation is looking into alleged embezzlement of public funds as well as favoritism and concealment of said favoritism regarding the contracts that were awarded to companies by organizers.

The second investigation started last year after an audit by France's anti-corruption agency. Also implicated in the potential crimes is Solideo, the company in charge of building and maintaining the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic facilities. Authorities searched the construction firm's offices today.

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Paris is far from the first Olympic host city to face such allegations. The two most recent Summer Olympics in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro were similarly implicated in a corruption probes or scandals. A Brazilian politician later confirmed he paid approximately $2 million for several IOC members to vote for Rio to host the 2016 Games, leading to a 30-year prison sentence for him. The Tokyo Games, postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the pandemic, were accused of corruption surrounding top sponsors.

Only time will tell how this will all play out before the first-of-its-kind opening ceremony on the Seine next July.