A Luxembourgish investment fund, Peninsula Capital, was searched earlier this week as part of an investigation into the conditions under which the World Cup was awarded to Qatar, sources close to the case said on Friday.
French investigators from the anti-corruption office (Oclciff) and Luxembourgish investigators conducted the search at the initiative of the investigating judge of the Paris judicial court Serge Tournaire, according to the weekly Marianne, which broke the story first.
According to a source close to the case, the investigators are looking into possible financial transactions linked to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy through the Peninsula fund. According to another source close to the case, the investigators are looking into a €3.3 million transfer.
The investigations launched in December 2019 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for active and passive corruption, concealment, and money laundering aim to determine whether or not the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar gave rise to “a give-and-take deal” concluded during a lunch at the Elysée Palace in 2010.
The lunch brought together Nicolas Sarkozy, Michel Platini, then president of UEFA, and the crown prince of Qatar, Tamin ben Hamad al Thani, who became emir in 2013.
A few months after the lunch, the Paris Saint-Germain football club, owned by the American fund Colony Capital, was sold for €76 million to the sovereign fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).
The Peninsula Capital fund has already appeared, according to Marianne, as one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s financial vehicles for his private affairs.
