During the two years of preliminary investigations, police found the slush funds of the biggest French weapon market of the last couple years at the Direction of Naval Construction (DCN). The justice committed this case to two magistrates of the financial pole. For the moment, they made sure not to poke their nose too much into it and only investigate on trivial things. Fortunately, “Bakchich” was able to obtain confidential documents and dissect the channels that allowed wonderful commissions to disappear. Frigate sales, submarines, torpedo boats and other military boats : as many juicy markets that we will tell in six episodes.
You always have to be careful of the French IRS. Like in the old days, when Al Capone went down for money businesses, a common tax audit of a consulting and business intelligence firm might open Pandora’s Box of slush funds of the Republic.
After the discovery in January 2006 of several structures held by a former agent from DGSE (Foreign French intelligence service), Michel Mauchand and by a former officer of the DST (Direction of Territory Surveillance), Claude Thévenet, Bercy’s agent searched their home and office. After taking an interest in a series of invoices addressed to the DCN (that became DCNS after getting closer to Thales), the French IRS passed the case to the Public Prosecutor of Paris. Nice draw for the prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin, a skillful lawyer and top strategist, who started the preliminary investigation. “With this case, explains a Parisian magistrate, Jean-Claude Marin who served all regimes has a general safe-conduct”. And the cops just kept going to the DCN’s premises, the holy of holies of French weaponry, where boats, frigates and other tri-colored submarines are being designed and manufactured. The police paid a visit to DCN International (DCNI), the commercial branch of the DCN that was for a long time in charge of the bribing of the middlemen. More than ten executives got an unwelcomed search… “We came upon several secrets of the Republic” explained the financials cops of Nanterre.
The assumed facts are of “active and passive corruption”, “misuse of company assets”, “violation of national defense secrets” and “violation of investigation secrets”. The two magistrates nominated end of march focused on the activities of former agents of intelligence services paid by the DCN. They were interested in profiles of certain personalities, or even ongoing judicial proceedings : the frigate case in Taiwan and Clearstream, this story of fake bank listings which allowed them to involve numerous figures in business, administration and politics, including Nicolas Sarkozy. Not illogical : we can indeed imagine that the DCN, manufacturer of the famous boats sold in Taipei, would want to get information on the degree of progress of judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke’s investigation on the surprisingly high commissions paid to a mysterious Andrew Wang.
But the most interesting is elsewhere for those who are willing to take an interest. The Police officers of DNIF (National Division of Financial Investigations) dug out the network for commissions distributed by the State who is looking to export frigates and submarines : distribution of commissions, middlemen contracts, corporations registered in Luxembourg. Two characters, Heine and Eurolux Gestion, played a key role as we will see in the next episodes.
The biggest weaponry markets exported by France in the 90s were involved by the network put into place via DCNI, essentially the contracts that weren’t negotiated between States. Submarines sold to Pakistan, patrol boats to Koweit, endorsements to the frigates markets exported to Taiwan (which led to gigantic commissions as the justice has shown), updates on frigates in Saudi Arabia, corvettes sent to Singapore and submarines to Malaysia… All those beautiful equipment labeled with France. Secretly, commissions were being sent to mysterious beneficiaries. Bakchich will come back with more details on those huge markets that feed the French military industry or even the European one and their money evasion network…
At the heart of the evidence seized by the cops and carefully left out by the justice, a key character : Jean-Marie Boivin, an employee of the DCNI for a long time, then consultant in the beginning of the year 2000. The man who lives between the Champ de Mars and Luxembourg where he is officially a resident – he is notoriously close to the prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and travels with the company of the great Duke –, didn’t wish to follow up on our calls and mails. Bakchich will give a portrait in a couple days of this heaven-sent man…
But miraculously, the judiciary information, that finally opened in the beginning of 2008 after 2 years of investigation, only kept small cases among all those juicy backstage information mixing State and Private interests. The preliminary investigation under the close control of the prosecutor, led to the collecting of legal statements where the scope was carefully locked by the prosecutor. We will mobilize two examining magistrates for pretty basic private information cases ; we leaked a couple names of people close to the old network that don’t need to worry.
The cop’s preliminary investigation was severely analyzed by Paris’ prosecutor who only passed on insignificant parts of the case to the two magistrates chosen end of March. Thus we find a Tax assessor who risks being prosecuted for receiving a couple thousand Euros. Another person was found guilty : Claude Thévenet, a former officer of DST, member of an association of old friends from the service who gathered at the Saint-James pub in Paris, said to be close to Yves Bertrand, the former director of the Renseignement généraux (French secret service), a Chirac follower, occasionally associating with his former boss at the DST Yves Bonnet. Might as well say that this poor Thévenet (who didn’t wish to answer Bakchich’s question) has everything to become the perfect scapegoat for the justice. We can also hear the name of this judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, who supposedly was the target of the privates, or even approached to give out information on his own investigation. Nicolas Sarkozy has in front of him this magistrate who dared to investigate on possible bank accounts found in the Clearstream files. A pretty insolent magistrate whose name can be found opportunely in the press…
In short, at the top of the state, inside the French weaponry groups, everyone can sleep calmly, the Republic’s prosecutor is watching out for them. As Bakchich has already said several times, Jean-Claude Marin is a very talented man. He has a great sense of politics ; he first followed Balladur, then Chirac and now Sarkozy. He now aspires to become the public prosecutor of Paris and promises not to shake anything up that might upset whom it may concern…
Soon, the second part of our investigation, the contracts for the frigates in Taiwan and in Sawari sold to Saudi Arabia.
Translated by Jacky Chen
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