In 2011, three executives of the group were accused of receiving “bribes” in exchange for confidential information provided to China. Unceremoniously dismissed, they were finally cleared.
It is the story of a fiasco, which caused a scandal in 2011 and led to the dismissal of three Renault executives, wrongly accused of having delivered confidential information to China. The “traitors” have since been cleared and only some of those who accused them will be judged from Wednesday January 17 to Friday January 26 in Paris, more than ten years after the events. In the accused box, four people appear for criminal conspiracy with a view to fraud or violation of secrecy. Franceinfo returns to this improbable affair, which seriously damaged the image of the automobile group and led to the resignation of the right-hand man of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault at the material time.
A mysterious anonymous letter
To understand the origins of the affair, we must go back to August 17, 2010. On their return from vacation, several managers discovered an anonymous letter at Renault headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine). The author claims that Renault employees are corrupt and receive “bribes”. She designates two people occupying key positions. They are Michel Balthazard, a leading engineer, member of the executive committee, who has worked for the firm for thirty years, and Matthieu Tenenbaum, 33, also an engineer, responsible for developing electric vehicles. Both have access to highly confidential information.
“Of course I have no proof, of course it’s denunciation, but I don’t care. I can’t stand to see well-paid people still stealing money. Which obviously happens. by rebound to the detriment of Renault.”
The crowin his anonymous letter
These accusations go back to Carlos Ghosn. Rather than relying on justice, he chose to launch an internal investigation, in order to prevent the matter from becoming known. This is entrusted to Rémi Pagnie, head of the Group Protection Department, a sort of internal police at Renault. The latter tasks two members of his team with investigating : Marc Tixador and Dominique Gevrey. The first is a former police officer from the Versailles financial brigade, who retrained in the private sector. The second, an ex-soldier, then claims to have an informant whom he nicknames “The Belgian”. The latter, also a soldier, “boasted of being able to have in-depth information in the financial field”relates Dominique Gevrey in the show “Affaires sensible” on France 2.
“Le Belge” quickly obtained banking information according to which Michel Balthazard had an account in Liechtenstein and Matthieu Tenenbaum an account in Switzerland. The Belgian also claims that another executive of the group, Bertrand Rochette, also involved in the development of electric cars, also has a Swiss account. In a note sent to Dominique Gevrey, the informant assures that very significant financial flows would have passed through their accounts via shell companies. No less than 180,000 euros would have been paid to that of Michel Balthazard, 551,600 euros to Matthieu Tenenbaum and 45,000 euros to Bertrand Rochette. “Le Belge” specifies that the sponsors of these payments would be two Chinese companies.
Unceremoniously fired
Carlos Ghosn, immediately informed, makes a radical decision. “He tells me : ‘Okay, we have to take action, we have to fire people'”, says Patrick Pélata, Renault’s number two, in “Sensitive Affairs”. For his part, ex-police officer Marc Tixador claims to have warned management. “Please note, you cannot dismiss employees on the basis of this information, it is only information, it is not proof”he would have said according to Fanny Colin, his lawyer, interviewed in the show. Despite these warnings, the three executives were summoned by their superiors on January 3, 2011. They were questioned in separate offices, using methods similar to police interrogation. Renault executives hope that the suspects will eventually confess and resign. But their plan fails : all deny it outright. The three suspects were still fired immediately.
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The affair spread very quickly and the media machine went into overdrive. The Minister of Industry at the time, Eric Besson, was concerned about a “danger for French industry” and talks about “economic war”. THE January 11, 2011, the three executives were summoned for official dismissal. Cameras crowd the entrance to the group’s premises. Michel Balthazard, Matthieu Tenenbaum and Bertrand Rochette proclaim their innocence. “Renault is making very serious accusations against me, which I completely refute. (…) It is a serious attack on my dignity, on my integrity”says Michel Balthazard, visibly shaken.
“My only goal is to recognize that I have nothing to do with this matter.”
Michel Balthazard, engineer at Renaultupon leaving the group headquarters
In the meantime, Renault has filed a complaint for organized theft, delivery of information to foreign powers, corruption and criminal conspiracy.
The doubts of real police officers
The investigation is entrusted to the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI). And very quickly, the police had doubts about the real existence of hidden accounts. Dominique Gevrey, at the origin of the revelations, refuses to give the name of his source, the famous Belgian informer. And at the end of January, despite the increasingly obvious fragility of the case, Carlos Ghosn decided to publicly defend the internal investigation carried out by Renault. “We have certainties, if we didn’t have certainties, we wouldn’t be here”he says on TF1.
But the accusations against the three executives did not take long to collapse: Switzerland informed the French justice system that they had no account domiciled in the country. A few weeks after his previous interview, Carlos Ghosn backpedals on TF1 and apologizes to the three executives. “I was wrong, we were wrong”he declares embarrassed.
“This did not start from nothing… It started from a certain amount of information which was truncated.”
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renaulton TF1
For Renault, it is a disaster. It doesn’t take long for heads to roll. On April 11, 2011, four executives of the group resigned, including Patrick Pélata. “The biggest regret of my entire career is that I should have disobeyed. When I said to Ghosn: ‘We have to go see the police, the government, counter-espionage, it’s the only way out reasonable as I see it in this matter. I’m still stunned that he didn’t want to do it.”, he confides in “Sensitive Affairs”. Carlos Ghosn manages to save his skin.
Gray areas to clarify
Where did this false information come from? Faced with investigators, Dominique Gevrey believes that “The Belgian” invented everything. The latter is heard by the courts and affirms in a new twist that he neither participated in the internal investigation at Renault, nor provided the slightest element on bank accounts. He has since been exonerated by the judges. The main accused is now called Dominique Gevrey. He is suspected of having sought to “deceive” Renault to extract 300,000 euros from the car manufacturer. He denies any nonsense and assures that this sum was to be used to pay his informant… who never received it.
Dominique Gevrey was indicted in March 2011 for conspiracy to commit organized gang fraud. After eight months of preventive detention, he was released, under judicial supervision, pending trial. Now aged 65, he is on the dock and will be tried for fraud. Responsible for leading the internal investigation, Marc Tixador is on trial for concealment of violation of professional secrecy. “He was never suspected of having participated in the scam”insists Fanny Colin, his lawyer.
A security consultant, Michel Luc, was fired for forgery and complicity in fraud, for having sent false invoices to Renault and giving cash and transfers to Dominique Gevrey. As for the three false spies, they obtained compensation from Renault. “A secret transaction which would be around nine million euros for the three, accompanied by a confidentiality clause”, specifies “Sensitive matters”. Matthieu Tenenbaum has since returned to the company, the other two have left.
Michel Balthazard has already made it known that he will not attend the trial. Before the affair, he was promised a great international career, expected to take charge of the group’s operations in Russia. “Nor the classification without follow-up, nor compensation, nor the apologies addressed to him by Carlos Ghosn [n’ont] was able to alleviate the trauma suffered at the time” by the one who had invested “more than thirty years at the service of Renault”his lawyers explain in a letter sent to the court.