Investigators searched the premises of Engie, previously GDF Suez, on Thursday April 17, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) confirmed on Friday April 17, as a part of a judicial investigation opened into suspicions of remuneration of Rachida Dati from the power group whereas she was a MEP.
Following a Tracfin report, the PNF opened an investigation final 12 months with the intention to discover doable relationships of curiosity with Azerbaijan and Qatar when the mayor of the seventh arrondissement of Paris was elected to the European Parliament, the place she sat from 2009 to 2019.
This preliminary investigation led on October 14 to the opening of a judicial investigation into suspicions of corruption, affect peddling, embezzlement of public funds, concealment and laundering of those offenses in reference to the train of Rachida Dati’s mandate as European parliamentarian.
Asked by AFP, Engie didn’t want to remark and the lawyer of the previous Minister of Culture didn’t reply instantly.
299,000 euros in “fees”
Two investigating judges have been seized and investigators from the Central Anti-Corruption Office (OCLCIFF) are at the moment utilizing the information recovered throughout searches of the properties of Rachida Dati and her city corridor within the seventh arrondissement in mid-December 2025.
A joint investigation by the France 2 journal Complément d’investigation and Nouvel Obs uncovered paperwork from a legislation agency suggesting that Rachida Dati acquired 299,000 euros in undeclared “fees” from GDF Suez in 2010-2011 when she was an MEP and lawyer, which she refutes.
Rachida Dati, unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Paris in March, can even be judged in September in one other case, for corruption and passive affect peddling for occasions occurring between October 2009 and February 2013, which she fiercely denies.
She is accused of getting entered right into a corruption pact and of getting illegally lobbied within the European Parliament on behalf of the producer Renault and its then boss Carlos Ghosn, now on the run in Lebanon and in addition referred to courtroom.
According to the legislation in pressure on the time, Rachida Dati faces on this case, as the principle penalty, ten years of imprisonment for passive corruption, and a high quality of 450,000 euros (half of the disputed sum) for receiving stolen items. She can also be liable as a further penalty of ineligibility for 5 years.
Furthermore, the monetary and anti-corruption brigade (BFAC) of the Paris judicial police is investigating suspicions of non-declaration of jewellery to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP).
These investigations, within the type of a preliminary investigation, observe experiences acquired, notably in June 2025, by the Paris public prosecutor’s workplace.
With AFP
https://www.france24.com/fr/france/20260417-procedure-rachida-dati-les-locaux-engie-perquisitions-annonce-le-pnf