Investigators searched the premises of Engie, formerly GDF Suez, on Thursday, the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF) confirmed this Friday, as part of a judicial investigation opened on suspicions of remuneration of Rachida Dati from the energy group while she was a MEP, according to France Télévisions and Le Nouvel Obs. When asked, Engie did not wish to comment and the lawyer of the former Minister of Culture did not respond immediately.
Following a Tracfin report, the PNF opened an investigation last year in order to explore possible relationships of interest with Azerbaijan and Qatar when the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris was elected to the European Parliament, where she served from 2009 to 2019. This preliminary investigation led on October 14 to the opening of a judicial investigation into suspicions of corruption, influence peddling, embezzlement of funds public, concealment and laundering of these offenses in connection with the exercise of the mandate of European parliamentarian of Rachida Dati.
The trail of 299,000 euros affected
Two investigating judges have been seized and investigators from the Central Anti-Corruption Office (OCLCIFF) are currently using the data recovered during searches of Rachida Dati’s homes and her town hall in the 7th arrondissement in mid-December 2025. A joint investigation by the France 2 magazine Complément d’investigation and Nouvel Obs had uncovered documents from a law firm suggesting that Rachida Dati would have received 299 000 euros in undeclared “fees” from GDF Suez in 2010-2011 when she was an MEP and lawyer, which she refutes.
The unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Paris in March will also be judged in September in another case, for corruption and passive influence peddling for facts occurring between October 2009 and February 2013, which she fiercely denies. She is accused of having entered into a corruption pact and of having illegally lobbied the European Parliament on behalf of the manufacturer Renault and its then boss Carlos Ghosn, now on the run in Lebanon and also referred to court.
According to the law in force at the time, Rachida Dati faces in this case the main penalty of ten years’ imprisonment for passive corruption, and a fine of 450,000 euros (half of the disputed sum) for receiving stolen goods. She is also liable as an additional penalty of ineligibility for five years. Furthermore, the financial and anti-corruption brigade (BFAC) of the Parisian judicial police is investigating suspicions of non-declaration of jewelry to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP). These investigations, in the form of a preliminary investigation, follow reports received, notably in June 2025, by the Paris public prosecutor’s office.
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