Paris (AFP)
The Ghosn affair ends up catching up with Rachida Dati: the former Minister of Justice, pillar of the Republicans, is finally indicted in the investigation into his consulting services in 2010-2012 to the former CEO of the Renault-Nissan alliance Carlos Ghosn.
Rachida Dati was indicted on July 22 for "passive corruption by a person invested with a public elective mandate within an international organization", in this case the European Parliament where she was elected at the time, and " concealment of abuse of power, "said the national financial prosecutor on Tuesday, confirming information from the Canard Enchaîné.
The mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, to whom some observers attribute a presidential ambition, had escaped prosecution at the end of a first river interrogation at 4 p.m. at the end of November before the examining magistrates who had then placed her under the intermediate status of assisted witness.
But after nine months of additional investigations, the magistrates of the financial center of the Paris court re-summoned her for a second interrogation which ended with this indictment.
“As in 2019 (during the campaign for municipal authorities, editor's note), we are trying to hinder my commitment to the deadlines that lie ahead!” Reacted to the Parisian Rachida Dati.
But, she assures, "my conviction and my determination are intact. I will be in this fight", referring to the right-wing primary for the presidential election.
"Justice is becoming instrumentalised for an unacknowledged political struggle," she denounced.
Assuring that "everything has always been declared and controlled" when she was a MEP, Ms Dati claims to have "provided all the evidence of (her) work" for the Renault-Nissan alliance.
The automotive group "is neither complainant nor victim and no public money is at stake," she argues.
Three investigating judges were entrusted in the summer of 2019 with this investigation which concerns contracts concluded by the Dutch subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, RNBV, with Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer, when Carlos Ghosn was still CEO of the group.
The investigations started from a complaint filed on April 17, 2019 by a Renault shareholder who accused Rachida Dati, Alain Bauer, but also Carlos Ghosn and his wife.
- Ghosn heard in June -
According to a source familiar with the matter, Ms. Dati, who denies any irregularity, would have received 900,000 euros in fees as a lawyer between 2010 and 2012 when she was also a Member of the European Parliament at the time.
Justice seeks in particular to know if its income corresponds to specific activities or if it was a job of convenience that could hide lobbying, prohibited for MEPs.
According to Ms. Dati's fee agreement, unveiled by Le Monde, the latter undertook to Mr. Ghosn to "assist him in determining the conduct of the group's international extension policy," in particular in the countries of the Middle East and the Maghreb ".
She asked for strict confidentiality on this collaboration.
If Ms. Dati is indicted for "passive corruption", the examining magistrates must therefore determine and prosecute the potential corruptor (s).
Mr. Ghosn, who had signed the contract with Ms. Dati, was questioned by magistrates in early June in Beirut, where he has taken refuge since his flight from Japan.
The former automobile boss was however heard at this stage as a witness, in particular because of procedural difficulties, but his lawyers demand that he be indicted in order to have access to the file and to lead an offensive defense (requests for acts, confrontations , etc.).
Alain Bauer, assisted witness, would have received one million euros between 2012 and 2016 for security consultant activities, via his company AB Conseil.
The names of Rachida Dati and Alain Bauer were also cited in an audit of the Mazars cabinet, carried out at the request of Renault and Nissan in order to examine the disputed expenses of RNBV, the subject of another judicial investigation in Nanterre.
This report, sent to justice, identified 15 million euros of suspicious expenditure of this 50-50 subsidiary between Renault and Nissan, created by Carlos Ghosn to embody the alliance of the two manufacturers.
Ms. Dati's lawyers also argue that no element of her remuneration has been concealed and that, therefore, the three-year limitation period for these offenses has been acquired since 2017. They also observe that neither the European Parliament nor the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life, nor the public prosecutor decided to prosecute her even though accusations of conflicts of interest against her were relayed by the press between 2009 and 2015.
The court of appeal must decide the issue of limitation in the coming months.
© 2021 AFP