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A raid is underway Insider

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".

GETTY The Front National leader's headquarters have been raided by police

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.

Things you didn't know about Marine Le Pen Fri, May 5, 2017 Marine Le Pen is a French politician who is the president of the National Front, a national-conservative political party in France and one of its main political forces. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 10 Described as more democratic and republican than her nationalist father, she has led a movement of "de-demonization of the Front National" to detoxify it and soften its image

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.

GETTY The Front National leader is expected to sail through the first round of the French election

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.

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.

GETTY Francois Fillon has also faced a fake jobs scandal over the employment of his wife