Would Nicolas Sarkozy have benefited from the services of a disastrous team working to obtain the retraction of Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in the case of the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 campaign? This is an incredible affair in the affair told by “Complément d’investigation” on April 11, 2024: the “Save Sarko” operation. Several actors in this fiasco provide exclusive testimony, of which here are a few extracts.
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Suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 campaign: a black cabinet to “Save Sarko”? Exclusive testimonials in “Additional investigation” (ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
Bismuth affairs, Bygmalion, alleged Libyan financing of the 2007 campaign… this last file, perhaps the most sensitive of those concerning Nicolas Sarkozy, is notablysupported by the accusations of a Franco-Lebanese intermediary, Ziad Takieddine. But in November 2020, he retracted in the media.
A dramatic turn of events after eleven years of sprawling investigation, when thirteen people, including the former president, are about to be judged. Could this about-face have been remote-controlled?Documents, hearings and wiretapsseem to uncover a dark cabinet, maneuvering to try topublicly whitewash Nicolas Sarkozy. Ziad Takieddine then returned to his original accusations. He claims that a market for himwould have been proposed. Could this retraction have been fabricated to come to the aid of the former president? And if so, at what price?
After months of negotiations, some of those indicted in this case agreed to give their testimony to “Complément d’investigation” and to reveal their version of what they call the “Save Sarko” operation.
Mimi Marchand, “the queen of the paparazzi”
This small group, which the ex-president described before a judge as a “band of nickel-plated feet”, would be made up of around ten people: an old acquaintance from “Complément d’investigation”, the “queen of the paparazzi” Mimi Merchant ; a relation of Nicolas Sarkozy, the millionaire businessman David Layani; a wealthy property dealer, now deceased, Pierre Reynaud… but also two men known to the courts for various scams: the screenwriter Thomas NLend, and especially Noël Dubus, an adventurer with a barbouze tendency on file with the DGSE.
A barbouze-style one-man band
Free under judicial supervision as part of his indictment for witness tampering, the man who would be the orchestrator of this imbroglio gave “Complément d’investigation” his confidences on the organization of the operation. At his request, his face remains in shadow.
It was in the summer of 2020 that Noël Dubus was allegedly approached by“people who wanted to know if Ziad was able, for a sum of money, to retract his initial testimony”. According to him, Ziad Takieddine, in great financial difficulty, would have accepted. Then, Noël Dubus would have met Michèle known as “Mimi” Marchand, boss of a photography agency and close to Carla Bruni, the wife of the former president, through the screenwriter Thomas NLend. He says she is tempted by the prospect of a scoop.
October 22, 2020: takeoff for Beirut
On October 22, 2020, the start was given by Noël Dubus and Michèle Marchand: immediate, first-class takeoff for Beirut, where Ziad Takieddine took refuge after his conviction in the Karachi affair. The shock interview will be carried out by a journalist from Paris Match that Mimi Marchand embarks with her. A photo and video session will follow, with a photographer she has chosen.
Operation “Save Sarko”: takeoff for Beirut
Operation “Save Sarko”: takeoff for Beirut
(ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
Thomas NLend says he followed the progress of operations in real time from Paris: “I know generally what is happening. I know that the interview is going well, and that they have what they want. (…) He will say verbatim: ‘I did not give money, either directly or indirectly, to Nicolas Sarkozy’.” According to Ziad Takieddine, “4 million, 5 million” would have been offered to him for this turnaround. Where would this money have come from?
A retraction worth millions?
Pierre Reynaud, one of the alleged financiers of the “Save Sarko” operation, agreed to deliver to the magazinean exclusive interview –a few months before being killed by cancer. Contrary to what Ziad Takieddine and Noël Dubus say, he denies having offered several million euros for this turnaround. This Audiard-like character boasted everywhere of being an intimate friend of Nicolas Sarkozy… but told “Complément d’investigation” that he did not know him.
Operation “Save Sarko”: “You can’t deny your friends”
Operation “Save Sarko”: “You can’t deny your friends”
(ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
Code name “Zébulon”
The police discovered that throughout the “Save Sarko” operation, Mimi Marchand, Noël Dubus and the others frequently mentioned the former president in their SMS exchanges, but without ever mentioning his name. “They called him Zebulun (named after a “somewhat energetic cartoon character”), reveals Thomas NLend, or even “Inès”, a first name whose sound is close to “NS”, the initials of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Operation “Save Sarko”: Was “Zébulon” aware?
Thus this text sent to Mimi Marchand: “Reassure Zébulon that everything is fine and that now that the funds are there, it is much easier.” Was Nicolas Sarkozy aware of what was going on? This is one of the questions at the heart of this investigation.
When the scoop goes “pschitt”… the counter-attack
The little gang was convinced that the interview would move the lines among the judges, but nothing happened as planned: the scoop went “shit”, the majority of the media considering that it had no legal value .
Operation “Save Sarko”: “You still have to like Nicolas Sarkozy to do him services at 72,000 euros…”
Two months after this failed media offensive, Noël Dubus then launched a counterattack – legal, this time. In Beirut, he organized an “interpellative summons”. This involves recording Ziad Takieddine’s declarations before a notary in order to send them to the Parisian judges. According to him, the questions in this new interview would even have been validated by Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog (who did not respond to requests from “Complément d’investigation”). The cost of this second trip to Lebanon, 72,000 euros, would have been assumed by a new “financier”, the millionaire businessman David Layani, who refutes these accusations.
This fiasco costs to the former head of state two new indictments, for “concealment of witness tampering” and “criminal association”… Nicolas Sarkozy has always contested any illegal financing of his 2007 campaign and informed “Complément d’investigation”, through his lawyer, that he was “totally unrelated to the organization of the incriminated report”.
Videos extracted from “Operation ‘Save Sarko’: behind the scenes of a fiasco”, a document to be seen in “Additional investigation” on April 11, 2024.
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