TotalEnergies’ establishment at Polytechnique: the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has closed the investigation into Patrick Pouyanné

The investigation was opened after three associations, including Anticor, reported “illegal taking of interests and favouritism, complicity and concealment” against Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné.

The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has closed the preliminary investigation for “illegal taking of interests and favouritism, complicity and concealment” against Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné, the PNF said on Tuesday, August 27, contacted by franceinfo. It was opened after the report of three associations Greenpeace France, Anticor and La Sphinx. The latter denounced the project to establish, subsequently abandoned in 2022, a building of the oil group on the Essonne campus of the École Polytechnique. They accused the CEO of the oil giant, who is also a member of the board of directors of Polytechnique, of having taken advantage of his position to impose the project to build a research building of his company within the École Polytechnique.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office examined a board meeting of April 20, 2020, in which Patrick Pouyanné participated. It concluded that his intervention did not constitute “an offence of illegal taking of interests” taking into account “of the very limited nature of his intervention” And “of the transparency of this speech”. “There was no ambiguity about Mr. Pouyanné’s status at the time of the intervention, he speaking explicitly in his capacity as CEO of Total”continues the PNF.

To justify its decision, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also mentions: “the need for a representative of Total to intervene at the board of directors in order to inform the other directors about the choices they would have to make”. He also recalls that “the framework for this intervention was set by the chairman of the school’s board of directors”, and that Patrick Pouyanné did not intervene or participate in the debates and votes “concerning the implementation project” during this board meeting.

For their part, Greenpeace France, Anticor and La Sphinx “deplore” the dismissal of their complaint. The complaining associations, including La Sphinx, which is an association bringing together students and former students of the École Polytechnique, say they are “extremely surprised” that at the end of its investigation, the PNF “considered the reported offences to be insufficiently characterised”.

The associations “regret that a case targeting a particularly influential personality, a French multinational and a leading public institution, did not lead to the appointment of an investigating judge independent of the executive branch”. Anticor, La Sphinx and Greenpeace France are considering filing a complaint with civil action so that an investigating judge can be appointed.