Paris Olympics Headquarters Raided by Authorities amid Corruption Investigation

French authorities raided the headquarters of the organizers for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, according to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

Paris 2024 said it's "cooperating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations."

The specific allegations against the organizing committee are unclear, but the AP provided some details on what precipitated the raid:

"An official with the financial prosecutor's office said Tuesday the searches are linked to two preliminary investigations related to the Paris Olympics that had not previously been made public. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to prosecutor's office policy."

The BBC reported that French police "are looking into allegations of favoritism and misuse of public money in the attribution of construction contracts."

In addition to Paris 2024's headquarters in Saint-Denis, authorities conducted a search at the offices of Solideo, which is the public body overseeing Olympics-related construction projects.

Per the AP, one of the investigations dates back to 2017, when Paris was named the host for the 2024 Summer Games. Another inquiry was opened in 2022.

The raids also come less than a month after Brigitte Henriques resigned as president of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF). The CNOSF is a separate entity from the Paris 2024 organizing committee.

Nonetheless the timing of Henriques' departure raised obvious questions a little over a year out from the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics. The quadrennial event is scheduled to get underway July 26, 2024.

The AP noted that bribery allegations surrounded the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, respectively.