Paris (AFP)
Anticor has filed a complaint against former MoDem Minister Sylvie Goulard concerning her services for an American think tank, the Berggruen Institute, when she was a member of the European Parliament, AFP learned on Friday from the anti-corruption association.
In its complaint, sent this week to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), Anticor asks the justice to investigate possible acts of "corruption", "influence peddling" and "breach of trust" on the part of the former MEP, currently number three at the Banque de France.
The anti-corruption association wonders about the reality of the work carried out for the American think tank, but also and above all about the possible counterparts in exchange for the remuneration paid under this contract.
Ms. Goulard acknowledged having worked as a "special adviser" for more than 10,000 euros monthly between October 2013 and January 2016 with the Council for the Future of Europe, a think tank founded by the Berggruen Institute, when she was a MEP.
This organization was founded by a German-American billionaire, Nicolas Berggruen, formerly qualified as a "vulture" financier by Forbes magazine. It is funded, according to the New York Times, by Mr. Berggruen's charitable trust, registered in Bermuda.
Recognizing that her salary could "raise questions", Ms. Goulard assured this fall that this job, authorized by the regulations, had been declared and that she had "no relation of any kind with the commercial activities" of M Berggruen.
"We did activities that were reflective, group facilitation, organizing meetings. It is a work that is proven," insisted the former Minister of the Armed Forces on the occasion of a hearing before the European Parliament.
Contacted by AFP, the Berggruen Institute denied any fictitious employment, evoking in particular the organization of a "round table in Brussels" and "conferences in Paris and Madrid". According to Anticor, one of these conferences took place four months before he was hired.
The controversy over this service, added to the case of allegedly fictitious jobs of assistants to MEPs from MoDem, cost Ms. Goulard her place in the new European Commission, proposed by Emmanuel Macron.
In the assistants' case, the former MEP was indicted in early December for "embezzlement of public funds". She had agreed this summer to reimburse 45,000 euros to the European Parliament for an assistant for whom she had been unable to provide "proof of work".
© 2019 AFP