The previous French president Nicolas Sarkozy is dealing with a preliminary investigation for affect peddling in reference to a €3m (£2.7) contract he signed with a Russian insurance coverage firm.
The rightwing politician reportedly obtained a primary cost of €500,000 final yr after being employed as a “particular adviser” to the Reso-Garantia group, owned by two Russian-Armenian billionaire brothers.
Anti-corruption detectives need to set up whether or not Sarkozy was employed as a marketing consultant or to foyer on behalf of the corporate. The latter may result in a cost of affect peddling and overlaying up a criminal offense or misdemeanour.
The brand new investigation is the newest of Sarkozy’s ongoing authorized woes. A verdict on final yr’s trial for corruption and affect peddling, throughout which prosecutors known as for a four-year jail sentence and which marked the primary time a former French president had appeared within the dock, is predicted on 1 March.
Sarkozy can also be anticipated in court docket this yr in relation to alleged unlawful overspending on his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid and is beneath ongoing investigation over allegations he obtained illicit marketing campaign funding from the late Libyan chief Muammar Gaddafi.
A member of Sarkozy’s entourage informed the Guardian the previous president was “completely calm” in regards to the new investigation and that his “consulting actions are framed in strict compliance with authorized and moral guidelines”.
The investigation was revealed by the web site Mediapart simply hours after the satirical newspaper Le Canard enchainé claimed Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cécilia Attias was paid as a part-time parliamentary assistant in 2002 when there was no proof she did any work to justify her €3,100-a-month wage.
Sarkozy has repeatedly stated he has by no means engaged in any wrongdoing and at instances instructed the a number of accusations towards him had been a political smear try. He informed the court docket final December he had “by no means dedicated the slightest act of corruption”.
In line with Mediapart, France’s nationwide fraud unit, Tracfin, raised issues final yr over why Sarkozy, who led France between 2007 and 2012, had been given the €3m contract with Reso-Garantia and what his function was. The corporate’s house owners, Sergei and Nikolai Sarkisov, informed Mediapart that they had paid the previous president as a “particular adviser” and chairman of the corporate administration board’s strategic council committee.
Reso-Garantia, based in 1991, is one in every of Russia’s largest insurance coverage corporations, specialising in automobile insurance coverage, with about 11 million prospects. In 2007, the French insurer Axa acquired 36.7% of the corporate. Axa is a serious shopper of the authorized agency Realyze, co-founded by Sarkozy in 1987.
The nationwide monetary prosecutor confirmed Sarkozy had been positioned beneath “preliminary investigation”. That is the primary stage of a authorized inquiry to determine whether or not there are any fees to reply. If the investigation concludes there are, the previous president might be mis en examen, put beneath formal investigation.
