Four days before the first round of the presidential election, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office announced on Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into the “tax optimization” practices of the consulting firm McKinsey revealed by the Senate inquiry committee and denounced by the opposition. .
Since the beginning of the controversy, the opposition has called for justice with insistence: in a press release, the national financial prosecutor indicated that after having read the report of the Senate commission of inquiry into the influence of the cabinets of private advice on public policies and carried out “verifications”, his prosecutor’s office had opened a preliminary investigation on March 31 for aggravated money laundering of tax evasion.
The investigations were entrusted to the Service of judicial investigations of finances (SEJF), specifies Jean-François Bohnert in this press release which does not mention the name of McKinsey. The SEJF is a “fiscal police” service created in 2019 and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts.
In a report submitted on March 16, the Senate commission of inquiry, initiated by the small group CRCE with a communist majority, assured that the contracts concluded by the State with consulting firms like McKinsey had “more than doubled” between 2018 and 2021, reaching a record amount of over €1 billion in 2021.
The commission of inquiry also accused the French entities of the McKinsey firm of “tax optimization”, such that they would not have paid any corporate tax between 2011 and 2020.
Emmanuel Macron in a France Inter studio on April 4, 2022 in Paris
© AFP – Ludovic MARIN
In the middle of the presidential campaign, the political opposition to the Head of State has since demanded the opening of an investigation into what they consider to be favoritism which the Macronist majority would show for the benefit of this consulting firm, some of whose members have been able to work for Macronie, especially during the 2017 presidential election.
The senators had also announced that they had taken legal action for “suspicion of false testimony” against a McKinsey executive who had affirmed that his firm paid corporate tax (IS) in France. However, no investigation has been opened to date for this leader, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The firm assured Wednesday in a press release that it would be “at the disposal of the competent administrations and authorities” if it were requested, reaffirming that it respected “the French tax and social rules which are applicable to it”.
– “State matter” –
“It was time” to open an investigation, reacted to this “scandal” the candidate LR Valérie Pécresse.
The LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse during a meeting Porte de Versailles, in Paris, April 3, 2022
© AFP – Ludovic MARIN
“Finally”, greeted the candidates Eric Zemmour, Fabien Roussel or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan on Twitter.
“But why is there still no (investigation, editor’s note) on the possible conflicts of interest between E. Macron and the consulting firms? And on his heritage? “, added Mr. Dupont-Aignan.
RN chief Jordan Bardella denounced a “state affair” and a “Macron-McKinsey government”.
“The opening of this investigation confirms the rigor and seriousness of the work of the commission of inquiry”, welcomed its president LR Arnaud Bazin, and its rapporteur CRCE, Eliane Assassi.
The case has become a “band-aid” by the denunciations of the opposition, recognized at the end of March a majority official.
“If there is evidence of manipulation, let it go to the criminal court,” Emmanuel Macron retorted on March 27 to those who blamed him for these numerous contracts. The president-candidate had considered in particular that the non-payment of corporate tax by McKinsey was explained by the tax rules in force.
At the end of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, spokesman Gabriel Attal assured that the government “from the start called for the whole truth to be revealed about the tax practices of this consulting firm”. “And it is in this sense that from the month of December, a tax audit train was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance,” he added.
The PNF investigation “is part of this same line, this same approach (…). This consulting firm will pay what it has to pay”, continued Mr. Attal.
Contacted by AFP, Bercy refused to comment on this procedure.
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