French judicial police have questioned Marine Le Pen’s bodyguard and chief-of-staff in an investigation into alleged “fake” jobs paid for out of European Union funds.

Brussels investigators claim Le Pen paid bodyguard Thierry Légier and France-based assistant Catherine Griset as EU parliamentary assistants even though they were employed on Front National (FN) business and not at one of the European parliament’s three seats in Brussels, Strasbourg or Luxembourg.

To qualify as a parliamentary assistant, the person needs to be physically working in one of those seats and be resident near that workplace.



The EU fraud office (Olaf) has demanded Le Pen, the far-right FN candidate in April’s French presidential elections, repay almost €340,000(£290,000).

French authorities opened a parallel investigation last year. On Monday, police raided the FN headquarters at Nanterre on the outskirts of Paris.



Le Pen was given until the end of January to repay the money or face having it docked from her MEP’s salary. She has refused to reimburse the payment and says she has done no wrong. As a result, the European parliament will begin withholding almost half her salary from this month as well as freezing her allowances and expenses.

Le Pen’s lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi said on Wednesday the affair was a “manipulation” aimed at destabilising her presidential election campaign.

Three other FN members of the European parliament, including Le Pen’s father and party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, have been ordered by the European court to reimburse about €600,000 of allegedly misused money.

Jean-Marie Le Pen has been told to repay €320,000 of salary and benefits, Bruno Gollnisch, a former academic convicted of Holocaust denial, €275,984, and MEP Mylène Troszczynski, €56,500. All three deny any wrongdoing and had challenged the reimbursement demand, saying it would leave them unable to carry out their MEP duties. Last week, the court rejected their appeal and ruled the recovery of the money should go ahead.

Marine Le Pen is the second French presidential contender under investigation in “fake” jobs scandals. Centre-right candidate François Fillon is facing accusations over claims he paid his British wife, Penelope, about €830,000 as a parliamentary assistant for more than a decade, and also paid his two eldest children, Marie and Charles, a total of €84,000 as assistants while he was a senator. French MPs and senators are allowed to employ family members, as long as the person is genuinely employed. Anti-fraud police are looking into what, if anything, Penelope Fillon did.