four questions on the opening of a judicial investigation concerning the remuneration of Tony Estanguet

The president of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not an employee, but he is nevertheless remunerated in the form of invoices sent to his company.

He wants the Olympics “copies” but finds itself at the heart of investigations by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). The president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop), Tony Estanguet, is the target of an investigation into the conditions of his remuneration, franceinfo learned from a source prock of the file, Tuesday February 6, confirming information from AFP. Contacted by franceinfo, the PNF refused to speak at this stage.

For its part, Cojop informed AFP of its “astonishment”. “We have not had contact with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, so we have no confirmation of the opening of this investigation.”, he assured France Télévisions. Franceinfo returns to this announcement by answering four questions.

How much does Tony Estanguet earn?

Tony Estanguet received annual remuneration of 270,000 euros gross until 2020, according to figures communicated in 2018 by the organizing committee of the Games. This sum was then likely to change within a limit of 20%, depending on certain performance criteria, Cojop specified at the time. “The amount of remuneration has not changed since”, assured the deputy general director of Cojop, Michaël Aloiso, quoted by AFP. For comparison, Sebastian Coe, president of the organizing committee for the London 2012 Games, received remuneration of around 360,000 pounds (422,000 euros) per year.

Who pays him?

Cojop is a 1901 law type association, and the remuneration of its directors is in theory capped by law at levels significantly lower than that of Tony Estanguet, with a ceiling of 11,600 euros gross per month, or 139,000 euros per month. year. But the committee explains that it has the particularity of being an association financed 96% by private funds and that it benefits, as such, from an exemption, the lucrative nature having been given to it. “confirmed by a tax ruling”. This determines the character of non-disinterested management in the fiscal sense, continues the committee, with commercial taxes such as VAT and no “salary ceiling”. Thus, Etienne Thobois, general director and employee of Cojop, receives remuneration of 260,000 euros per year.

“Having an employment contract would have created a relationship of subordination with someone above him, which makes no legal sense”detailed Blandine Sorbe, former magistrate at the Court of Auditors and deputy director at Cojop, cited by AFP. “We had discussions with the social administration and the general and financial controller who represents the Ministry of Finance within the association”which resulted in the solution of the regime “self-employed”.

How is this controlled?

Tony Estanguet, via a company he created, therefore receives his remuneration in the form of non-commercial profits. Cojop argued that Tony Estanguet’s remuneration had “was decided and validated by the first board of directors of the organizing committee on March 2, 2018, which ruled in its absence, in a sovereign and independent manner”.

The amount was decided on the proposal of a “remuneration committee” compound “independent experts responsible for ensuring the relevance of our remuneration policy”, he added. THE “payment terms (…) were validated by the general economic and financial controller, after consultation with Urssaf.also underlined the organizing committee.

Finally, the amount of invoices is subject to an annual audit by a “internal cell independent of the executive of the organizing committee” as well as “an examination by the remuneration committee”, the authority further clarified. This approach, she asserts, does not correspond “no legal obligation” but answer “a desire for transparency”.

Why does this montage raise questions?

Tony Estanguet is therefore both president of the committee and service provider. At the start of 2021, two reports from the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) on the organization of the Games noted “risks of breaches of probity” and of “conflicts of interest”. In one of these reports, the AFA mentioned the case of Tony Estanguet’s company, pointing out a “atypical assembly within the framework of a 1901 law association”Who “is not without its difficulties”recently recalled THE Chained duckcited by AFP.

The question of the remuneration of the main managers of the organizing committee had become sensitive since the attribution of the Games to Paris by the IOC in September 2017 in Lima (Peru). The chained Duck had mentioned at that time a salary of 450,000 euros per year for Tony Estanguet, immediately denied by the three-time Olympic canoe champion. The organization of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games is already the subject of three other separate financial investigations, in particular for suspicions of favoritism and misappropriation of public funds during the award of contracts.