The Nice Allianz Riviera stadium.

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SYSPEO / SIPA

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office closed its investigation opened in 2015 into the construction of the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice.

This procedure was classified for "absence of violation", according to the opinion of the PNF.

"I take note of the decision to discontinue the National Financial Prosecutor's Office of this now old complaint," said Me Jérôme Karsenti, lawyer for the anti-corruption association Anticor, which had become a civil party in May 2016 in this case.

"The reason for the classification without follow-up, which boils down to a concise mention indicating 'absence of infringement', astonishes us in view of the observations that the association had been able to make at the time of its complaint", he added, indicating that Anticor was going to examine the possibility of filing a complaint with the constitution of civil party to relaunch the investigations.

For its part, the City of Nice denounced "years of inappropriate suspicion" and announced that it was going to initiate a slanderous denunciation procedure against Anticor.

The internship managed by a Vinci subsidiary

The Grand Stade de Nice with more than 35,000 seats, inaugurated in September 2013 and managed by a subsidiary of the Vinci group, Nice Eco Stadium (NES), was built on the basis of a public private partnership (PPP) and was the one of the venues for Euro-2016 football.

A preliminary investigation was opened in January 2015 by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office after a severe report from the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, which criticized in particular the legal conditions for the use of a PPP and the partner selection procedure.

Five months later, searches were carried out on the Côte d'Azur and in the Paris region, in particular at the town hall of Nice and within the construction companies, Vinci and Bouygues.

In April 2018, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi (LR), was heard by the police in this case.

Preliminary investigation after a complaint against Estrosi

Justice

An open investigation into family jobs at the town hall of Nice

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