Marine Le Pen Is Charged in Inquiry Into Misuse of E.U. Funds<br />By AURELIEN BREEDENJUNE 30, 2017<br />PARIS — Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader<br />and former presidential candidate, was charged on Friday in connection with an investigation into whether her National Front party misused funds at the European Parliament.<br />Le Pen, who until recently was a European representative herself, was charged with breach of trust over accusations<br />that she put her chief of staff and her bodyguard on the European Union payroll at various times between 2009 and 2016.<br />Le Pen was elected to the European Parliament in 2004, 2009<br />and 2014, and left after last month’s legislative elections to sit in the National Assembly.<br />Le Pen, is accused of putting staff members who did political work unrelated to the European Union<br />on the European Parliament’s payroll by having them sign up as phony parliamentary aides.<br />Several far-right parties in the European Parliament, including the National Front, have<br />been accused of using its funds and benefits to push their anti-European agenda.<br />Sixteen other National Front representatives in the European Parliament have been under investigation by the French authorities since 2015.
