Indicted, will the secretary general of the Elysée appear one day? Since a first complaint in 2018, this case has seen many twists and turns. This excerpt from “Complément d’Enquête” focuses in particular on two police reports with contradictory conclusions.
The affair was revealed in 2018 by a series of articles from Mediapart: a possible conflict of interest between Alexis Kohler’s positions in the public service and his links with the Italian-Swiss shipowner Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), founded and run by cousins of his mother, the Aponte family. Following them, the Anticor association took the case to court. However, according to Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer for the NGO, “Slightly surprisingly, the complaint was dismissed”.
First of all, there is the change in tone of the investigators in their summary reports. That of June 7, 2019 notes, about Alexis Kohler: “His knowledge of his conflict of interest is proven”; “It takes no steps to organize a formalized deportation on all matters relating to MSC”; “All the information was going back to him.” A few weeks later, a second report delivers a completely different analysis: “Alexis Kohler never concealed his family ties”; “A deportation had been organized to take into account the files relating to MSC”…
A 180 degree turn, “the fact of the prince”?
Between the first and the second investigation report, Pierre Moscovici (Minister of the Economy from May 2012 to May 2014) and Julien Denormandie (assistant to Alexis Kohler when the latter was Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff at Bercy, between 2014 and 2016), among others, clear Alexis Kohler in writing. On July 1, the President of the Republic in person takes up his pen in defense of his right arm. In a personal note revealed by Mediapart, he claims that Alexis Kohler had informed him of his “family ties with the controlling shareholders of the MSC company” and that he had asked to be released from the files concerning her, these falling to Julien Denormandie, his deputy. On August 22, 2019, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office announced that the investigation had been closed.
“The question arises whether this classification is not the work of the prince. Is it the role of the President of the Republic to intervene in an ongoing legal case, especially when it concerns his collaborator in place and, even more, at the Elysée?”
Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer for the Anticor associationto “Further investigation”
These certificates seem to him somewhat “artificial”, the Anticor association asked “until classification is broken and that, finally, investigating judges are seized”, specifies the lawyer of the NGO.
Emmanuel Macron renews his confidence in him
“Complément d’Enquête” asked the Elysée for an interview with the President, but did not get a response. Thomas Lelong, who signs this document, took advantage of the inauguration of the Agricultural Show, on February 25, 2023, to question him. Emmanuel Macron reaffirms his full confidence in the“honesty” of its secretary general despite his indictment, sweeping away the Anticor procedure, which according to him “is not coming to an end”.
However, according to information from “Complément d’Enquête” confirmed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to Alexis Kohler himself, two of the hierarchical superiors at Bercy are indicted in this case (since February 9, 2023, for “complicity in the illegal taking of interests”). They would have been aware of his family ties with the shipowner MSC, while deciding to keep him on the board of directors of structures linked to the company, in particular STX.
Excerpt from “Alexis Kohler, the President’s shadow man”, a document to be seen in “Complementary investigation” on March 30, 2023.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.