Marine Le Pen ‘admits fixing bogus job for bodyguard nicknamed 'The Gorilla''

EU funds allegations: Marine le Pen
REUTERS
Peter Allen17 February 2017

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has reportedly admitted setting up a bogus job in the European parliament for her ex-paratrooper bodyguard nicknamed “The Gorilla”.

The move was allegedly part of a misuse of EU funds — worth up to £300,000 to Ms Le Pen’s far-Right party Front National — that could derail her presidential bid and even land her in jail.

A previously confidential report by Olaf, the European Anti-Fraud Office, contains the allegations, all published today in French investigative outlets Mediapart and Marianne.

They say MEP Ms Le Pen made 6ft 2in, 16st Thierry Legier, 51, a “parliamentary assistant” on £6,000 per month.

But he has never been linked to any EU work, meaning his wages received from European taxpayers, including Britons, should never have been paid.

Ms Le Pen, 48, “produced a purely fictional work contract concerning him”, Olaf alleges. She was also said to have produced an employment contract for friend Catherine Griset as part of the same money-spinning arrangement. Ms Griset was meant to be a parliamentary assistant in Brussels but worked all the time at FN’s Paris HQ, according to the Olaf report.

Ms Le Pen spent months denying the charges but the leaked papers say she has “finally admitted” them, claiming she wanted to “regularise unpaid salaries and charges”. She is said to be refusing to pay the money back, alleging political victimisation.

The EU parliament estimates the taxpayers’ total loss from the two salaries as approaching £300,000. Paris prosecutors have begun a judicial investigation of corruption allegations which carry jail sentences of up to 10 years.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in