The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested that the former police figure be tried for passive influence peddling, forgery in public writing and complicity and concealment in violation of professional secrecy and instruction.
A trial has been requested for eleven people including the ex-boss of internal intelligence Bernard Squarcini in a vast investigation into murky links between figures of the police, intelligence and private interests, in particular LVMH, indicated Tuesday to AFP a source familiar with the matter.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had requested on December 23 that Bernard Squarcini be tried in particular for passive influence peddling, forgery in public writing and complicity and concealment of violation of professional secrecy and instruction. These requisitions do not concern the luxury group LVMH, who paid a fine of 10 million euros at the end of 2021 to avoid prosecution for influence peddling.
Ousted by François Hollande
In this judicial investigation with multiple ramifications, opened more than ten years ago, eleven people indicted are the subject of requisitions for dismissal. Common thread of the file, the reconversion in the private sector of Bernard Squarcini, nicknamed “the Shark”, after his ousting in 2012 from the head of the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI, now DGSI) by François Hollande, who considered him too close by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Having become the boss of a consulting company in economic intelligence called Kyrnos, the former spymaster notably offered his services to the luxury group LVMH. The judges suspect him of having taken advantage of his connections in the police and his networks to obtain privileges or confidential information on ongoing investigations, for the benefit of LVMH.
Bernard Arnault heard as a witness
In 2016, he was indicted, in particular for concealment of violation of the secrecy of the instruction, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds. Five other people were also prosecuted in the process, including Christian Flaesch, former head of the Paris judicial police, whose case was severed and who will be tried in Paris on February 14, 2023.
In June 2021, the charges against Bernard Squarcini were increased in particular due to suspicions of surveillance of the current LFI deputy François Ruffin and the team of his newspaper Fakir, who were making a satirical documentary about LVMH and its all-powerful boss, Bernard Arnault. But in December 2021, the luxury group concluded a legal agreement in the public interest with the Paris public prosecutor’s office allowing it to avoid prosecution for “influence peddling” in exchange for the payment of a fine of 10 million euros. euros.
“Where is the principal? It is the great absent from the file! The rich pay, the poor go to court”, criticized on condition of anonymity a council of one of the defendants.
Bernard Arnault was heard as a witness in this case while the former number 2 of LVMH, Pierre Godé, presented by several respondents as one of the main protagonists, died in early 2018.
