Marine Le Pen's headquarters RAIDED by police in investigation into EU fake jobs 'scandal'
MARINE Le Pen's offices have been raided by police investigating an alleged fake jobs scandal.
Le Pen meets Lebanese leaders on Beirut visit
A raid is underway
A team of anti-fraud officers entered the building in Nanterre, the Paris suburb, while the 48-year-old Front National leader was on her first ever official visit abroad, in Lebanon.
An investigating source said: "A raid is underway. Its aim is to find evidence related to the ongoing enquiry."
A spokesman for Ms Le Pen immediately accused them of carrying out a "media operation whose goal is to disturb the course of a presidential campaign".
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Ms Le Pen is said to have set up a fake job in the European parliament for her ex-paratrooper bodyguard nicknamed 'The Gorilla'.
The alleged scandal could see Ms Le Pen jailed, along with other party officials involved.
A previously confidential report by Olaf, the European Anti-Fraud Office, contains allegations of a criminal scam worth up to £300,000 received by the FN, all of which are reportedly supported by leaked documents.
They show how Ms Le Pen, who is an MEP, made Thierry Legier - the 6ft 2ins, 16 stone former soldier who revels in his 'Gorilla' nickname - a 'parliamentary assistant' on £6,000 plus per month.
Mr Legier, 51, is currently in Beirut with Ms Le Pen and has previously protected Hollywood celebrities ranging from Charles Bronson and Mel Brooks to Sean Penn.
Before starting work for Ms Le Pen in 2011, he spent decades looking after her father, the convicted racist and anti-Semite Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the FN in the 1970s.
But Mr Legier has never been linked to any EU work, meaning that moneyreceived from European taxpayers - including British ones - should not have been paid.
Ms Le Pen was also said to have produced a false employment contract on behalf of Catherine Griset, a long-time friend, as part of the same money-spinning arrangement.
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Ms Grist was meant to be a parliamentary assistant in Brussels from December 2010, but reportedly spent all her time at the FN headquarters in Nanterre, the Paris suburb.
The leaked papers claim Ms Le Pen has "finally admitted" the charges, saying she had simply wanted to "regularise unpaid salaries and charges".
But the hardline leader now denies this, and says the whole affair is part of a smear to stop her becoming president in May.
She is refusing to pay the money back, as Paris prosecutors carry out a judicial investigation for a variety of corruption charges including breach of trust and organised fraud - all of which carry prison sentences of up to 10 years.
The scandal comes as Francois Fillon, the right-wing Republicans party candidate for the presidency, also faces charges for a fake jobs scandal involving his British-born wife, Penelope, and their two children.
The raid took place just hours after it was revealed the FN leader could “easily” win the first round of the French Presidential elections in May with seven points clear of her closest rival.
Ms Le Pen would beat her four main rivals to win the first round on April 23 with a score of 27 per cent, according to a survey of voting intentions from Opinionway.
She would then move through to the two-way run-off against either independent candidate Emmanuel Macron and conservative Mr Fillon.
With nine weeks to go to the first round, it was still not clear whether Macron, a centrist, or Fillon, a former conservative prime minister, would go through to the knockout against Ms Le Pen.
