Thierry Gaubert, former collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy, was indicted last Friday in the investigation into suspicions of Libyan funding for the 2007 campaign of the ex-president, we learned this Monday from judicial sources and close to the case.
Placed in police custody Thursday, Thierry Gaubert was indicted the next day for "criminal association", suspected of having touched funds from the Libyan regime of Gaddafi which could have fueled the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, according to these sources who confirm information from the weekly Le Point .
A transfer of 440,000 euros?
By an additional indictment signed at the end of January, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office had widened the investigations to these facts of "association of criminals", according to the judicial source. This opens the way to the indictment of new suspects as well as to a worsening of prosecutions against the protagonists already involved, including Nicolas Sarkozy.
Thierry Gaubert, 68, was a collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy when the latter was at the Ministry of the Budget in the government of Edouard Balladur (1993-1995). He is suspected of having received on February 8, 2006 a transfer of 440,000 euros from the Rossfield company belonging to the intermediary Ziad Takieddine, another indicted, as Mediapart had unveiled last December.
The mule theory
According to online media, six million euros of Libyan funds were collected by Rossfield in 2006. "Thierry Gaubert is indicted for political financing as in the Karachi case and, as in the Karachi case, the prosecution will abandon this thesis at the hearing, "responded his lawyer.
During the trial of the financial component of the Karachi case in October, the prosecution considered that there was nothing to prove that Thierry Gaubert acted as a "mule" to transport 10 million francs to the account of the campaign of Edouard Balladur , unsuccessful presidential candidate of 1995.
Real estate investments in Colombia
The judgment of the Paris court on this file is due on April 22. As for the funds paid in 2006 by Rossfield to an account in the Bahamas of Thierry Gaubert, they were mentioned during the trial in December of the latter and his ex-wife for tax fraud and money laundering, the decision being expected on March 19.
Thierry Gaubert had justified this transfer of funds by real estate investments in Colombia and refuted any link with Libya. According to Le Point , he conceded "having withdrawn in cash, in several installments, a total amount of 180,000 euros between 2006 and 2007", to finance his lifestyle.
Investigators suspect that this money could have funded the campaign budget of Nicolas Sarkozy, at whose headquarters circulated at least 30,000 to 35,000 euros in cash according to the investigations.
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- Nicolas Sarkozy
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