{"id":6086,"date":"2026-04-14T17:16:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/6086\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T17:16:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:16:27","slug":"french-investigators-target-elysee-palace-in-events-company-contracts-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/6086\/","title":{"rendered":"French investigators target \u00c9lys\u00e9e palace in events company contracts probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/france\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">French<\/a> \u2060police searched several locations Tuesday as part of a <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/corruption\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">corruption<\/a> investigation \u200bbut were denied access when they sought to enter the presidential\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/\u00e9lys\u00e9e-palace\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace<\/a>, the national financial prosecutor&#8217;s office \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n<p>The searches \u200cwere conducted as part \u2060of a probe into favouritism, conflict of interest, corruption and influence peddling, \u200cfocusing on the awarding of certain public \u2060contracts related to the organisation of Pantheon ceremonies among others, the office said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Several \u200bhomes and offices were searched, \u200cthe statement said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n<p>French newspaper Le Canard Enchaine\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/canardenchaine\/status\/2044027320109830152?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^2044027320109830152|twgr^0df9245adc4250723ffc06b92dae8cb36e70b268|twcon^s1_&amp;ref_url=https:\/\/www.france24.com\/fr\/moyen-orient\/20260414-en-direct-negociations-liban-israel-hezbollah-netanyahu-annulation-etats-unis-moyen-orient-iran-detroit-ormuz-blocus-golfe\" rel=\"nofollow\">also reported<\/a>\u00a0that investigators were looking into why Shortcut Events had for over two decades been chosent to host the induction into the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/panth\u00e9on\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pantheon<\/a> mausoleum of <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/france\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">France&#8217;<\/a>s most notable historic figures\u00a0\u2013 including members of the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/french-resistance\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">French Resistance<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and whether the company partly owned by Havas had received extraordinary support from the National Museums Centre, the Ministry of Culture or the \u00c9lys\u00e9e.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper estimated that each ceremony cost &#8220;around 2 million euros&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Shortcut did not \u2060immediately \u200brespond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The last ceremony the company organised, according to Le Canard Enchaine, was one in 2024 to honour <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/france\/20240221-france-inducts-missak-manouchian-into-the-panth\u00e9on-in-tribute-to-all-foreign-resistance-fighters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Missak Manouchian, a stateless Armenian poet<\/a> who died fighting the Nazi occupation of France during <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/world-war-ii\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">World War II<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, French-American dancer, singer, Resistance member and rights activist <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/josephine-baker\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Josephine Baker<\/a> became the first black woman <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/culture\/20211130-live-josephine-baker-becomes-first-black-woman-to-enter-france-s-panth\u00e9on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to enter the Pantheon<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French \u2060police searched several locations Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation \u200bbut were denied access when they&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3236,3518,5,246,30,122],"class_list":["post-6086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-corruption","tag-elysee-palace","tag-france","tag-investigation","tag-paris","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}