Paris Olympics Chief Tony Estanguet Says He Faces Legal Probe Over Pay

Paris Olympics chief organiser Tony Estanguet on Tuesday confirmed that French investigators had opened a legal probe into his pay, six months before the Games begin. Estanguet, who was attending the opening of a swimming pool in suburban Paris, was responding to a report on AFP earlier in the day that the investigation, by magistrates specialising in financial crimes, began "last week". "I learned this morning that there would be an investigation," said the triple Olympic canoeing champion.

A source, who did not wish to be named, told AFP that the probe will look into the way Estanguet is paid as head of the organising committee. 

That follows a report in the investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine last October that Estanguet uses his own company to bill the organising committee monthly, instead of drawing a salary.

Estanguet responded that he "doesn't decide his remuneration or its structure."

He has so far been spared the legal problems that have embroiled other members of the Paris 2024 team.

His annual remuneration of 270,000 euros ($290,000) before tax and bonuses was made public in 2018 after a furore over reports that he would receive almost double that amount. 

A spokesperson for the committee said it was "astonished" by the investigation and denied that Estanguet was paid as an external consultant to avoid salary caps placed on charities. 

Estanguet said: "Since the creation of the organising committee, there has been a remuneration committee with independent experts, a board of directors who have taken a position... and a general economic and financial control from Bercy (the home of the French finance ministry), who have capped my level of remuneration."

The financial crimes prosecutors' office in Paris