"Orion Oil case": quoted in the "Liberation" investigation, Manuel Valls denies any link
Former Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
© OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP
Text by: Amélie Beaucour
3 mins
New revelations from the
Liberation
newspaper in the "Orion Oil affair"
,
this Friday, January 13, implicate a former French Prime Minister.
According to the French daily, French customs suspect Manuel Valls' entourage of having solicited the CEO of the oil group Orion Oil to finance his 2017 presidential campaign.
Advertising
Read more
The name of Manuel Valls appeared in this survey,
according to
Liberation
, in November 2016. Five months before the presidential election in France, François Hollande, the outgoing president, has not yet indicated whether he is running for re-election or not.
The Socialist Party, to which the President and his Prime Minister Manuel Valls belong, has therefore not yet chosen its candidate.
At the same time, the Canadian-Congolese businessman, Lucien Ebata, CEO of Orion Oil, was staying in France and meeting several French personalities in a hotel in the capital.
On November 22, he mentions one of his appointments with his wife, by telephone.
Lucien Ebata does not know that he is being tapped and, even if he uses code names in Lingala, one of the languages spoken in Congo, the judicial customs who analyze the conversation will understand that it is a question of potential financing of an electoral campaign, that of Manuel Valls.
Ismaël Halissat, journalist for
Liberation
, was able to consult the translated transcript of the tapping: “
In this first conversation, they discuss in veiled words, they are quite cautious.
Lucien Ebata says: "the Badibanga of France
"
.
Samy Badibanga was then the Prime Minister of the DRC.
But in a subsequent conversation, on December 5, the day Manuel Valls' candidacy was announced, he is referred to directly by name.
During this conversation, Lucien Ebata is also much clearer: he says that it is from him that the funds will come from to win.
»
► To re-read: Congo-Brazzaville: the company Orion Oil at the heart of an investigation in France
Contacted by
Liberation
, Manuel Valls denies having asked Lucien Ebata to finance his campaign
Asked by
Liberation
about the content of these wiretaps, Manuel Valls evokes "
fanciful statements
".
“
I don't think I know Mr. Lucien Ebata.
Who is he talking about?
No one in my entourage was able to solicit him for "hidden financing", which was otherwise useless and illegal.
It makes no sense [...] It's against all my principles.
The primary campaign lasted barely a few weeks
.
But the current investigation reveals that a close friend of the former Prime Minister would have played this role for him.
It could be, according to
Liberation
, the communicator Stéphane Fouks.
He is the vice-president of the Havas group, owned by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Stéphane Fouks' mission is to advise politicians and businessmen on their media strategy.
It was he, for example, who advised former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac when he was accused in 2013 of tax evasion.
He was also the one who advised Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former director of the IMF, when he was accused of rape.
And it was he who, according to the revelations of
Liberation
, had an appointment with Lucien Ebata to, obviously, ask him for money in order to prepare the Manuel Valls campaign.
At first, his name did not surprise the authorities who are investigating, because Stéphane Fouks is in a business relationship with Mr. Ebata.
According to journalists from
Liberation
, traces of payments amounting to several million euros were found between Havas and Orion Oil on the occasion, for example, of the organization of the Forbes Africa forum.
Do the investigators have proof that Manuel Valls received money from Lucien Ebata for his campaign?
No not right now.
However, Lucien Ebata was obviously able to bring a lot of cash to France, according to the revelations of our colleagues from
Liberation
.
Several million euros in cash would have transited in the suitcases of the businessman.
But no concrete trace, at this stage of the investigation, of a payment between the CEO of Orion Oil and the former French Prime Minister.
► To re-read: Congolese businessman Lucien Ebata indicted in Paris
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
French politics
Manuel Valls
France
Congo Brazzaville