Accusations of embezzlement have surfaced against Marine Le Pen, just as the far-right nationalist politician is set to enter the run-off election for the French presidency on April 24.
The public prosecution in Paris had received a report from the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF issued on March 11 which contained allegations against Le Pen and was currently being examined, the prosecutor's office told dpa on Sunday.
Parts of the report were published by investigative news site Mediapart on Saturday. In it, Le Pen is being accused of embezzling nearly €137,000 ($148,000) in EU funds during her time as lawmaker in the European Parliament between 2004 and 2017.
Le Pen's lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut, who is quoted in the Mediapart report, has denied the accusations. The presidential hopeful reserved the right to take legal action against former assistants or service providers who may have embezzled funds or committed other misconduct without Le Pen's knowledge, he said.
According to Bosselut, OLAF is not an independent agency. The lawyer also criticized the timing of the report's publication, ahead of the second round of voting in France's presidential elections next Sunday, where Le Pen will face incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.
According to Mediapart, the report also names three former EU lawmakers from Le Pen's Rassemblement National (National Rally) party - formerly Front National: her father Jean-Marie, her former partner Louis Aliot and the party's former vice president Bruno Gollnisch.
Together they are said to have embezzled a total of €486,000, for example for national policy purposes or to support service providers that are close to the party.
Aliot, who is now mayor of the southern French city of Perpignan, also denied the accusations in comments made to broadcaster Franceinfo on Sunday.
Accusations of this kind against Le Pen and the Rassemblement National are not new. For years, assistants working for EU lawmakers from the party, who are paid by the EU parliament, have been suspected of actually working for the Rassemblement National.
