What is Marine Le Pen guilty of in National Rally embezzlement case?
After a nine-week trial, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was this week found guilty of the embezzlement of European parliamentary funds through a fake jobs scam of an unprecedented scale and duration. She was banned from running for office for five years with immediate effect, which could prevent her making a fourth bid for the French presidency in 2027. She has said she will appeal against the verdict and sentence, which also included a four-year prison term – with two years suspended and two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet – and €100,000 (£84,000) fine. What was Marine Le Pen found guilty of? Le Pen was “at the heart” of a carefully organised “system” of embezzlement of European parliamentary funds, according to the ruling by Bénédicte de Perthuis, a judge specialising in financial crimes. From 2004 to 2016, taxpayer money allocated to members of the European parliament to pay their assistants based in Strasbourg or Brussels was instead siphoned off by the far-right National Rally (RN) party, which was then named Front National, in order to pay its own party workers in France. The staff in France had no connection to work undertaken at the European parliament. The court found there was “no doubt” about the existence of the scheme which “under cover of fictitious contracts” served to “remunerate people who actually worked for the party or the party leaders” in France. This was estimated to have caused a loss to European funds of €4.8m (£4m). Le Pen, who was a member of the European parliament from 2004, as well as head of the party from 2011, was found guilty of directly organising eight fictitious contracts worth about €474,000. But the court said she was also at the centre of “instigating” the wider fake jobs scheme which she undertook with “authority” and “determination”. Who else was convicted? Eight other European parliament members for RN were found guilty of being part of the scheme, alongside 12 people found to have had fictitious contracts as parliamentary assistants. Two accountants and the party treasurer were also convicted. Those found to have been paid for party work under fictitious European parliament assistant contracts included the full-time bodyguard of Le Pen’s late father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as well as his personal secretary. Also convicted was Marine Le Pen’s sister, Yann Le Pen, who in fact worked on events for the party’s central office in France. What did they do with the money? Le Pen and those convicted did not gain any personal financial benefit. The judge ruled “there was no personal enrichment”, but rather “enrichment of the party”. The embezzlement scheme channelled money to fund Front National, which was in financial “difficulty”, the judges found. The party made “large savings” by paying its centralised staff in France with European funds. Among documents cited in evidence by the judges was an email sent in June 2014 from the party treasurer to Le Pen outlining the party’s financial troubles, saying: “We’ll only get through if we make big savings thanks to the European parliament …” The court said the salaries paid from European parliamentary funds to party workers were “comfortable” amounts which the party could otherwise not have paid. The system had allowed a comfortable working life for party leaders, such as the party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who had a secretary and bodyguard. He had been accused of being part of the scheme but did not stand trial due to ill health. He died, aged 96, in January. On what evidence did the court reach its verdict? The judges said a broad range of evidence showed the contracts were fictitious and work was not carried out for the European parliament, but instead for the party. The judges cited a 2014 email from one member of the European parliament, who had previously been a lawyer, to the party treasurer: “What Marine is asking is equivalent to us signing for fictitious jobs …” He warned this was likely to be spotted. “I think Marine knows all that …” the treasurer replied. During the trial, the court heard that one party worker wrote in an email: “I’d like to see the European parliament and that would also allow me to meet the member of the European parliament I’m attached to.” He had apparently never been to the European parliament where he was supposed to have been working for four months. Did Le Pen admit guilt? No. During the trial Le Pen, like the others accused, told the court she was innocent. She said: “I have absolutely no sense of having committed the slightest irregularity, or the slightest illegal act.” After the verdict she repeated she was innocent and said she would appeal. The judges noted in their verdict that the accused “had not expressed any conscience of their violation of the law nor the importance of integrity”.
