The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) opened at the end of October two judicial investigations related to the intervention of consulting firms in the electoral campaigns of 2017 and 2022, after the numerous accusations that pointed to Emmanuel Macron about his alleged links with McKinsey.
During the last presidential campaign, a Senate report sparked a heated controversy over the use of public funds to benefit these firms, which have signed numerous contracts with the State in recent years. The opposition then requested an investigation into the possible favoritism that McKinsey would have benefited from by the Macronist majority.
“It is up to the judiciary to carry out these investigations independently,” the Élysée reacted this Thursday at the beginning of the afternoon.
The name of the absent president from the PNF press release
After an article Parisian titled “McKinsey Case: Emmanuel Macron in the crosshairs of an investigation for illegal campaign financing”, the PNF published a press release on Thursday to “clarify the situation of various criminal proceedings” initiated after the Senate report as well as various complaints and reports.
The prosecution clarified that “after various reports and complaints from elected officials and individuals, a judicial investigation was opened on October 20, 2022, in particular of the heads of non-compliance with campaign accounts and reduction of accounting elements in a campaign account, regarding the conditions of intervention of consulting firms in the electoral campaigns of 2017 and 2022”. Without specifying the names of the potentially affected candidates.
According to Mediapart, some members of the McKinsey cabinet could have worked for free during Emmanuel Macron’s victorious presidential campaign in 2017. The head of state, whose name therefore does not appear in the PNF press release, is protected by their criminal immunity. , provided for in article 67 of the Constitution.
A preliminary investigation already underway
In addition, in his press release, the prosecutor adds that “after various complaints from elected officials and associations”, other information was opened “on October 21, 2022 from the heads of favoritism and cover-up of favoritism.” These two procedures are added to a preliminary investigation that had already been underway since March 31 for “aggravated money laundering of aggravated tax evasion” and that had led to a search at McKinsey’s French headquarters on May 24.
In fact, the Senate report pointed to a possible tax arrangement for French entities of McKinsey, which would have allowed them not to pay corporation tax between 2011 and 2020.
“A company’s tax contribution is not just corporate tax,” replied Clarisse Magnin-Mallez, general director of McKinsey France, at BFM Business in July. “We have paid almost 500 million euros in recent years, in particular in contributions to social security.”
Macron had refuted any “scheme”
During the 2022 presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron, for his part, had refuted any “scheme”, stating that the contracts concluded between the State and McKinsey had complied with current regulations. “No contract is signed in the Republic if there is no call for tenders and a public procurement contract”, he had replied on March 27 in France 3 to those who reproached these numerous contracts.
“If there are signs of manipulation, go to criminal justice”then replied.
“If McKinsey has cheated, it will be prosecuted,” he added about the company’s fiscal situation. The Head of State then had welcomed the opening of an investigation on this aspect. “It is very good that the judge, the tax auditors take on a case when it is said that a company has defrauded,” he explained on TF1 at the beginning of April.
Source: BFM TV
