The homes of several former McKinsey consultants have been raided, Politico has learned from multiple legal and political sources.
On the morning of 31 January, as part of an investigation launched by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), investigators went to the homes of Karim Tajdin, former associate director of the consulting firm, and Mathieu Maucourt, former consultant of the firm. ,
The latter, who campaigned with Emmanuel Macron in 2017, is now the prime minister’s inter-ministerial representative for youth. Contacted, the two main interested parties did not wish to comment.
searched A judicial source confirmed this as part of a judicial inquiry related to the role of consulting firms in electoral campaigns.
These former consultants were mentioned in several complaints and reports to the PNF, known as the McKinsey affair. Questions about the role of Emmanuel Macron and the cabinet along with the executive have grown ever since. POLITICO’s first disclosure By January 2021 on the advice provided by the firm to the government.
Karim Tajdin, longtime associate director of the public sector division within McKinsey, was auditioned within the framework of a Senate investigation into the influence of consulting firms that put him at odds over his employer’s services, particularly for the National Education Account Was.
When solicited, neither I Vincent Brenot, Auguste Debouzy’s attorney and McKinsey’s attorney, nor the firm’s communications wished to comment on developments in the case and these new findings.
more than three ongoing cases
in the wake of the senatorial investigation, which was created a ruckus in the middle of the campaign in 2022There have been numerous reports from elected officials, associations and unions. addressed For PNF, that’s checking for three checks.
A first judicial component relates to McKinsey’s tax status, which was discovered last May as part of an investigation opened for “serious tax evasion”. The Senate has in fact revealed that the group has long paid no corporate tax in France, where it enjoys a significant turnover. then the firm had Confirmation ,[respecter] French fiscal and social regulations applicable thereto”.
This was followed by the initiation of two other judicial inquiries. october Last by the PNF on a more political aspect.
One relates to the heads of “non-compliance with the terms of the intervention of consulting firms in the 2017 and 2022 election campaigns, keeping of campaign accounts and deficiencies in campaign account accounting elements”.
The second was opened to conceal favoritism and favoritism, which includes “corruption, influence peddling, breach of trust” and “embezzlement of public funds” according to the latest information obtained by L’Obs and others. Political,
after leaking from Parisian Revealing some of the reasons for the investigation, searches were carried out at the Renaissance Party’s headquarters as well as McKinsey’s premises in Paris. December,
The Paris prosecutor’s office is continuing its work on the Senate complaint for perjury against Karim Tajdin – who has since left McKinsey to join the Partech fund.
“Always interested in politics”
Moucourt joined Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team in 2017 after four years as a project manager at McKinsey. Responsible for logic and feedback in the candidate’s team, the adviser became Mounir Mahjoubi’s deputy chief of staff after En Marche’s victory in 2017.
The former Secretary of State for Digital and his team worked to popularize the concept of “Tech for Good”, the belief that digital technology is put at the service of the common good. Under the same guise, the president held a summit at the Elysee and received big bosses from the tech sector, assisted pro bono by McKinsey consultants, including Karim Tadjeddinne.
“These are people who have always been interested in politics, but [étaient] Desperate for parties, Macron was their superhero,” says a former Bercy adviser who walked side by side with both of them at the time.
Moucourt then returned to the private sector, starting entrepreneurship and consulting, according to his LinkedIn profile. He returned to the public a year later as Thibaut Guillaume, head of the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Engagement, before being recently promoted to the post of Inter-Ministerial Representative for Youth alongside Elisabeth Borne.