Three years in prison, including one firm, were required, Tuesday, September 20, against the president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) Bernard Laporte and the businessman Mohed Altrad, suspected of having tied together one “corruption pact” in 2017.
After an indictment of nearly four hours, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office also called on the Paris Criminal Court to prohibit, for two years, Bernard Laporte from exercising any function in rugby and Mohed Altrad, CEO of the construction giant of the same name, to manage a trading company. Fines of 50,000 and 200,000 euros respectively were claimed against them.
The defendants, who dispute the facts, “have damaged the probity surrounding French rugby”justified the financial prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin.
According to the prosecution, the ex-coach of the Blues would have made a series of arbitrations favorable to the Altrad group – including the granting of the sponsorship jersey of the XV of France – with whom he had established an image contract. “secret” which resulted in the payment without consideration of 180,000 euros at the beginning of 2017.
This contract constitutes the “original sin”estimated the other financial prosecutor, Céline Guillet, listing “obscure trading conditions” and one “unusual amount” remuneration and recalling that Bernard Laporte will not have performed any of the services listed in this agreement.
According to the prosecutor, the boss of French rugby will, on the other hand, have carried out “atypical interventions” and “problematic” for the benefit of the interests of Mohed Altrad, his group and his Montpellier rugby club (MHR), of which he is the president.