PARIS, Feb 6, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - French investigators have opened a legal

probe into the pay of Paris Olympics chief organiser Tony Estanguet, a legal
source said Tuesday, in an embarrassing development six months before the
Games begin.

The enquiry by magistrates specialised in financial crimes began "last week"
and will look into the manner in which Estanguet receives his pay as head of
the organising committee, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The triple gold medal-winning Olympic canoeist had so far been spared the
legal problems that have embroiled other members of the Paris 2024 team.

His annual remuneration of 270,000 euros ($290,000) before tax and bonuses
was made public in 2018 after a furore over reports that he would receive
almost double that amount.

But according to revelations in the investigative newspaper Le Canard
Enchaine last October, Estanguet uses his own company to bill the organising
committee monthly, instead of drawing a salary.

A spokesperson for the committee said it was "astonished" by the
investigation and denied that Estanguet was paid as an external consultant in
order to avoid salary caps placed on charities.

The package and arrangements had been approved by the board and the economy
ministry, the spokesperson said.

The probe is a major blow for the suave 45-year-old Estanguet, the public
face of the Paris Olympics, who is seeking to focus attention on preparations
for the sporting events at the July 26-August 11 Games.

The Olympics have been repeatedly tarnished by corruption in the past, either
over the manner in which the Games were awarded or through the lucrative
construction and services contracts that are part of the event.

The financial crimes prosecutors' office in Paris declined to comment when
contacted by AFP.

- Legal woes -

The Paris organising committee was already the subject of three separate
investigations into the possible misuse of public money and favouritism in
the awarding of contracts.

The offices of the committee and Games infrastructure group Solideo have been
searched by police, as have the homes of two other senior figures in the
organising committee, Etienne Thobois and Edouard Donnelly.

Those cases revolve in part around sports management or events companies
founded by senior Games staff before they started working for the Paris 2024
organising committee.

Around 20 different contracts are under the microscope, totalling tens of
million of euros, one judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

France's Anti-Corruption Agency had flagged possible problems with
Estanguet's pay arrangement in a report in 2021 because of the organising
committee's status as a charity.

The spokesperson said that his pay had been approved by the organisation's
pay committee, composed of independent experts, and approved by the Economic
and Financial Controller General in the economy ministry.

Given that Estanguet usually chairs the board, it had met without him when
discussing his remuneration, the spokesperson said.

- Nearly ready -
Organisers of Paris 2024 have been determined to showcase a different sort of
Olympics, shorn of the common problems of vast over-spending, wasteful
infrastructure investment, and corruption.

In a speech last month, President Emmanuel Macron called them "a unique
opportunity to show the best of ourselves, obviously in the sporting world...
but also what our country represents and knows what to do in terms of
exemplarity and organisation."

Both the French Anti-Corruption Agency and the state's top auditor body were
given oversight of the organising committee in a bid to root out graft.

The 2016 Rio Olympics featured large-scale corruption, which shocked the
general public, leading the former Brazilian Olympics boss and the governor
of the city to be convicted afterwards.

Several businessmen were also found guilty of bribing a Tokyo Olympics
committee member in a scandal that soured the mood over the 2020 Games held
in the Japanese capital.

Despite the legal problems, the Paris Games appear broadly on track, with
almost all of the main building work finished and the budget over-spend
relatively small compared with past editions.

This week will see the committee unveil the medal designs, while a brand new
venue which is set to host the basketball and rhythmic gymnastics will open
its doors at the weekend.

Estanguet's basic pay of 270,000 euros is less than that of Sebastian Coe's
when he served as chief organiser of the 2012 London Olympics.

Coe, now head of the World Athletics, received around œ360,000 (421,000
euros) in the year of the Games, according to the organising committee's
annual report.