Five years after the sale of 36 Rafale planes to India, the NGO Sherpa obtained from the French courts the referral to an examining magistrate to investigate suspicions of corruption on this contract dating from September 2016 for an amount of 7.8 billion euros.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the information published on Friday by Mediapart according to which he had taken on June 14 an introductory indictment seizing an examining magistrate of this case which has aroused the stir in India for several years.
The NGO denounced in particular the choice of Reliance, Dassault’s Indian partner in this sale and company of a businessman close to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Dassault won a tender in 2012 to supply 126 aircraft and has since negotiated with Indian aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
Negotiations concluded “95%” in March 2015, according to Dassault. But the following month, after an official visit to France by Mr. Modi, negotiations broke down to everyone’s surprise. Reliance Group, a private company with no experience in the aeronautics industry, was then imposed to the detriment of HAL to sign a new contract for the delivery of 36 aircraft.
In January 2016, at the time of the final negotiations, Reliance Group had financed a film co-produced by Julie Gayet, companion of the then president, François Hollande. Sherpa suspects a possible ” Bribery “. What the former head of state defended himself, asserting that France had “No choice” of Dassault’s Indian partner, provoking a number of reactions in India.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, current French Minister of Foreign Affairs and ex-Minister of Defense of the Socialist President, had told him that Paris had not suffered “No pressure” from New Delhi.
In April 2019, The world also revealed that France had canceled in 2015 a tax reassessment of a global amount of 143.7 million euros targeting a French company belonging to Reliance Group, at the same time that this sale was being negotiated.
A close associate of Anil Ambani, boss of Reliance, had boasted to the newspaper of having met, with the Indian businessman, Emmanuel Macron in his office as Minister of the Economy at the beginning of the year 2015 to settle the tax dispute there.
The PNF had dismissed Sherpa’s first denunciation in June 2019, without opening a preliminary investigation.
But in April, Mediapart accused in a series of articles this prosecutor’s office specializing in the fight against financial offenses and the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) of having “Buried” the suspicions surrounding this controversial sale. According to the news site, the former PNF chief Eliane Houlette refused to investigate this large-scale aeronautical sale, against the advice of his deputy.
“This file was closed without follow-up for lack of infringement”, replied the PNF, while the AFA did not wish to react. Mediapart also evoked “Millions of euros in kickbacks” paid to an intermediary suspected of helping Dassault close the sale, including ” a part (…) could have been returned in the form of bribes ” to Indian officials.
Dassault retorted that“No offense has[vait] been reported ‘ as part of the controls to which the group is subject.
Following these articles, Sherpa therefore filed on April 22 a complaint with the constitution of civil party in Paris for suspicion of ” corruption “ and “Active and passive influence peddling”, concealment and laundering of these offenses, as well as “Concussion” and “Concealment of favoritism”.
Taking note of this complaint, which allows the quasi-automatic appointment of an examining magistrate, the PNF issued on June 14 an introductory indictment opening this judicial information on the qualifications “Covered by the complaint of the Sherpa association”.
Despite its classification in June 2019 of the association’s report, the PNF therefore does not oppose the latter’s new request. It is now up to the investigating judge seized to launch the investigations or to issue an order to signify his refusal to tackle it.
“It is an important first step towards the manifestation of the truth in a file which already presents all the appearances of a scandal of state”, reacted to AFP on Friday evening the lawyers of Sherpa William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth.