The closest collaborator of Emmanuel Macron is already indicted for “illegal taking of interests”, suspected of having participated in decisions relating to the MSC shipowner, a group belonging to members of his family.
the world with AFP
Two senior officials and former superiors of Alexis Kohler were indicted on February 9 for “complicity in illegal interest” in the investigation of the ties of the secretary general of the Elysée with the MSC shipowner , said the National Financial Public Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) Monday March 13, confirming information from Estate” Investigation Complement “ (France 2).
In this file, Mr. Kohler, indicted for “illegal taking of interests” in September without judicial control, is suspected of having “participated” between 2009 and 2016 in decisions relating to the MSC shipowner, group belonging to family members.
Bruno Bézard and Jean-Dominique Comolli, successive bosses between 2007 and 2010 and then between 2010 and 2012 of the Agency for State Participations (APE), were the superiors of Mr. Kohler when he was administrator of STX France (today Atlantic sites) and the great sea port of Le Havre (GPMH), both linked to MSC. No judicial control has been ordered against them, said the PNF in response to the France-Presse agency (AFP).
The APE is in charge of the “heritage interests” of the public power: it embodies and exercises the missions of the shareholder state and is responsible for managing its portfolio of participations in different structures. In front of the magistrates, the secretary general of the Elysée assured, during an interrogation unveiled by AFP, having “never considered being in a situation of conflict of interest”.
family ties with MSC
But he also explained that he had participated in any decision concerning the group, at the time Stx-GPMH; to have warned his hierarchy of his family ties; to have asked to leave his mandate as administrator of Stx; And having expressed in his votes on the board of directors the position of the State rather than his.
Bruno Bézard, who will be 60 years old on May 13, former major of the National School of Administration (ENA) and Polytechnician, spent twenty-eight years in Bercy and held the most prestigious position there, that of director general of the Treasury, to which he was appointed under the five -year term Holland. After having seen a dozen ministers spend, he left the post and the public service in the spring of 2016, to create an investment fund between Europe and China.
Jean-Dominique Comolli worked in the offices of the socialists Laurent Fabius and Michel Charasse, and also in the tobacco industry. “In the end, it is above all [ourselves] who should be prosecuted, since it was we who imposed [Mr. Kohler] to remain” administrator of Stx, he said in hearing about him and that of Mr. Bézard. “Finally, [the secretary general of the Elysée] was more aware of the problem than us.”
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