The financial prosecutor’s office requests a trial against Vincent Bolloré for corruption in the investigation into the activity of his group in West Africa

The financial prosecutor’s office on Monday requested a trial against Vincent Bolloré for corruption in the African ports affair, franceinfo learned on Friday June 7 from a source close to the matter. The businessman has been targeted for ten years by an investigation into the management of the ports of Lomé (Togo) and Conakry (Guinea), attributed to his group at the end of the 2000s. The PNF is requesting a trial in particular for ” corruption of foreign public money” and “complicity in corruption of a foreign public official”.

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On April 25, 2018, Vincent Bolloré was indicted for corruption of a foreign public official, complicity in breach of trust and forgery and use of forgery. Investigators suspect the Bolloré group of having used its communications subsidiary Havas to obtain management of ports in Guinea and Togo. In exchange, Havas is suspected of having carried out advisory and communications missions to help African leaders gain power. The Breton industrialist disputes this chronology of events.

The billionaire almost escaped a trial two years ago by accepting a “to plead guilty” which justice ultimately did not validate. His two right-hand men Gilles Alix, general director of the group at the time, and Jean-Philippe Dorent, international director at Havas, will also be prosecuted.

For the national financial prosecutor’s office, “Vincent Bolloré personally and regularly followed the activities of his group in Togo” and must therefore “be considered as perpetrator of active bribery of a foreign agent”, according to the final indictment of which franceinfo has taken note. Vincent Bolloré’s lawyers, Me Céline Astolfe and Me Olivier Baratelli, announce to franceinfo that a “request for dismissal will be presented to the investigating judge”. They denounce a “legally empty file” and “disputed facts from day one.”