The former head of internal intelligence Bernard Squarcini will be tried in Paris in particular for influence peddling, suspected of having illegally used his networks to obtain confidential information for the benefit of private interests, mainly the luxury giant LVMH, AFP learned on Tuesday. a source familiar with the matter.
In a September 1 order known to AFP, two investigating judges also ordered the prosecution of ten other people, including a former magistrate, a prefect and former senior police officials or consultants who allegedly responded, to varying degrees. , at the requests of Bernard Squarcini. .
Nicknamed “the Shark”, Bernard Squarcini and his ties to the luxury group LVMH constitute the common thread of the investigation opened twelve years ago. Accused in 2016, before the process is extended in 2021, the former head of the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI, now DGSI) will be tried for eleven crimes, including passive influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds by a particular, commitment to secrecy of national defense, breach of trust, falsification of public deed and complicity and cover-up of violation of professional and instructional secrecy.
AFP could not immediately contact their lawyers.
“Manifest Parse Error”
The judges consider that “the argument of the defense consisting in maintaining that the protection of the purely private interests of Bernard Arnault is that of the economic patrimony is a manifest error of analysis” by Bernard Squarcini, and that the DCRI, mobilized by the the latter should not have “intervened in this context”. With this, Bernard Squarcini “necessarily” caused “damage” to the DCRI and “in general to the French State”, according to the two financial magistrates.
“This trial will be emblematic of the misappropriation by senior officials, and in the first place by Bernard Squarcini, of his mission in strictly personal interest and at the cost of an attack on the credit of the State”, reacted William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth. , lawyers for Franck Alioui, a policeman who filed a civil lawsuit.
The investigation focused on four aspects, including the attempt to identify, in 2008, by DCRI police officers, the perpetrator of a private blackmail attempt “to the detriment of Bernard Arnault and the LVMH group” and the incredible “espionage” of François Ruffin and his newspaper Fakir between 2013 and 2016. The luxury giant LVMH is no longer concerned about the procedure, since the group paid a fine of 10 million euros at the end of 2021 to avoid being prosecuted for trafficking of influences.
Source: BFM TV
