Bolloré: search at the headquarters in the case of concession African ports – Le Parisien

This took place on Friday but no one has learned on Tuesday.

Vincent Bolloré was absent when local investigators Central fight against corruption and financial crimes and tax (OCLCIFF) visited offices of the CEO and the Director General and the legal Director of the group.

the search was conducted as part of a judicial inquiry entrusted to judges and financial including on suspicion of “foreign public official corruption.” A preliminary investigation was initiated in July 2012 by the Paris prosecutor and the case was transferred to the national financial floor.

The police are wondering if the Bolloré group has not used Havas, its advertising arm to facilitate obtaining the management of ports of Conakry, Guinea, and Lomé, Togo. “During the search, he was asked for documents on port concessions in Africa and we gave them,” said Mr. Olivier Baratelli, lawyer of the Bolloré group. “The group is not part of or involved in this legal information,” he said.

According to Le Monde, Francis Perez, president of Pefaco Group, a company specializing in the hospitality and games and very well established in Africa, among its relationship Jean-Philippe Dorent, employee communications company Havas (60% owned by Bolloré), which is “particularly busy in 2010 of Guinea’s presidential campaign candidate Alpha Conde “.

The President of the Republic of Guinea, Alpha Conde, elected in November 2010, was terminated on 8 March 2011, by decree, the concession agreement of the Conakry port container terminal granted in 2008 for a duration of 25 years Getma, a subsidiary of the shipowner NCT Necotrans. The Guinean government had given a few days later the management of the port Bolloré group, sparking a legal battle between the two rivals. The Bolloré group was sentenced in 2013 by the Commercial Court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) to pay over $ 2 million at NCT Necotrans.

In addition, according to Le Monde, Jean-Philippe Dorent was also responsible for a part of the communication of the young Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, son of Gnassingbe Eyadema. In 2010, the year of the re-election of Mr. Gnassingbé, the Bolloré Group won the concession of the Lomé Port container terminal for a period of 35 years. A decision also challenged by a competitor.