Corruption in Togo: towards a criminal trial for Vincent Bolloré
Industrialist Vincent Bolloré in 2016 © AP Photo / Kamil Zihnioglu
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Justice paves the way for Vincent Bolloré's referral to a criminal court for a corruption pact between his group and the Togolese president.
The industrialist appeared this Friday morning as part of a procedure for the preliminary recognition of guilt.
But, according to Le Monde, the court refused to approve the sentences requested by the PNF, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, and accepted by Vincent Bolloré, and deemed "necessary" to hold a trial.
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Today's hearing was to be the epilogue of 10 years of proceedings.
After numerous appeals and denials, Vincent Bolloré, anxious to avoid a trial, had agreed to plead guilty to
active bribery
of a foreign public official and complicity in breach of trust.
Concretely, he recognized that his group had paid part of the communication costs of Faure Gnassingbé, then candidate for his re-election during the Togolese presidential election of 2010, in exchange for contracts and tax advantages for the
port of Lomé
.
According to the agreement made with the PNF, the industrialist was to pay a fine of 375,000 euros but had obtained that this conviction does not appear in his record.
But this Friday morning, the court refused to approve this sentence, as well as that of two collaborators of Vincent Bolloré, considering that the alleged facts had "
seriously undermined economic public order
" and "
undermined the sovereignty of the Togo
”.
And therefore requested a trial.
On the other hand, the judges validated the procedure for pleading guilty to the company Bolloré SE, as a legal person.
According to the PNF, it will have to pay a public interest fine of 12 million euros within 10 days.
It will also have to have its anti-corruption compliance program assessed for 2 years by the dedicated state agency, at its own expense and for a maximum amount of 4 million euros.
The PNF, however, did not mention the rejection of the agreements reached with Vincent Bolloré and his collaborators.
Vincent Bolloré's lawyer, Me Olivier Baratelli, did not respond to our requests.
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