for more than two years, the French judicial inquiry opened on Pefaco company specializing in the hospitality and games, very established in Africa, advancing discreetly. It eventually led the police to the Central Office for the fight against corruption and financial and tax offenses (OCLCLIFF) in industrial Vincent Bolloré.
Friday, April 8, the Bolloré tower in Puteaux (Hauts -de-Seine), including seat of Bolloré Africa Logistics group, was the subject of a search warrant issued financial investigative judges Serge Tournaire and Aude Buresi. On this occasion, the office of the CEO, Vincent Bolloré, while traveling in Britain, as well as the Director General and the Legal Director of the group, were visited by the investigators. An operation that came to give another dimension to the original investigation. The police are asking today if indeed the Breton billionaire group used its advertising arm, Havas, to facilitate the acquisition of port management in Guinea Conakry and Lome in Togo. in a statement, the Bolloré group said Tuesday “ and he has maintained that he has no relationship with the Pefaco company and its officers.”
the part of Havas leading investigators to Bolloré
It is indeed incidentally that the judges were led to an interest in African affairs of the Bolloré group, present in 46 African countries where it has established itself in port logistics. Specifically by addressing interpersonal Francis Perez, president of Pefaco group.
This French company, based in Barcelona, has close links with several Corsican figures in the world of casinos, as well as ‘with some African heads of state such as Togo Faure Gnassingbe and presidents Denis Sassou-Nguesso. Francis Perez has also relations among one Jean-Philippe Dorent, whose name had already appeared in reporting Tracfin – the laundering department of the Ministry of Finance – which caused the opening of the preliminary hearing in July 2012. “ I know Mr. Perez as I know lots of people in Africa and elsewhere , “says the world Mr. Doran.
Jean-Philippe is Dorent one of the executives of Havas, powerful communication company 60% owned today by the Bolloré group, where he is responsible for international pole. Very active in Africa, it is especially busy in 2010, on behalf of Havas (then owned by Bolloré 32.9%) of the Guinean presidential campaign candidate Alpha Condé, returned from his long exile in Paris whom he had befriended the former foreign minister, his school friend Bernard Kouchner, and with Vincent Bolloré. “ It is fair to say that Havas has the campaign. As a consultant, I made the board, which is my job, says Mr. Doran . And was rather well advised Conde whom I consider a friend and a figure of the African struggle against the dictatorship and against apartheid “
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Mr. Doran also had charge of a part of the communication of the young Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, son of Gnassingbe Eyadema, remained over thirty-seven years at the head of this small country in West Africa.
in February 2014, then in February 2015, the police conducted several searches at his place of work in the premises of Havas, the sixth largest advertising group, headed since August 2013 by Yannick Bolloré, 36, the son the CEO. They put their hands on items that no longer necessarily have links with Pefaco and African casinos but which led to searches conducted on April 8 at the headquarters of the Bolloré group.
The advice of M . Dorent and its Havas group for the campaign have they facilitated the granting to Bolloré Africa Logistics of port concessions in Guinea Conakry and Lome in Togo? As such, the scope of the judicial inquiry opened in November 2013 was extended in early 2016 to the facts of “foreign public official corruption” .
African Politics and obtaining the ports
in November 2010, Alpha Condé access to the presidency after the first free election in the country, coming out of fifty-two-year plan authoritarian.
in the aftermath, in March 2011, the concession agreement of the container terminal at the port of Conakry, granted in 2008 for a period of twenty-five years Getma, a subsidiary of french group Necotrans, specialized in port logistics in Africa, is broken. Conde then entrusts the management of the port to his “friend” Vincent Bolloré. A legal battle then ensued by Necotrans in France and a long arbitration procedure is initiated
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” It’s a fantasy to think that a hand to the campaign of a presidential candidate who was an outsider as Alpha Condé allow the obtaining a port “ sweeps Mr Doran
in Togo, the Bolloré group won in 2010 -. year of the re-election of Mr. Gnassingbé – the concession of the container terminal Lomé port for a period of thirty-five years. A decision also challenged, this time by another competitor. Jacques Dupuydauby, former associate of Bolloré Togo, multiplied judicial remedy against the conditions in which he considers to have been evicted. Contacted, Olivier Baratelli, counsel for the Bolloré Group declined to comment. For its part, the Havas group has not responded to our requests.
The Bolloré group “maintains no relationship with the company Pefaco” under investigationthe Bolloré group has denied any involvement Tuesday, April 12 with the Pefaco company, mentioned two years ago by a survey by the central fight against corruption and financial and tax offenses. “The Bolloré Group first states that it has maintained and has no relationship with the company and its officers Pefaco” , the group said in a statement, then that a search took place on Tuesday at the headquarters of Bolloré Africa Logistics group, and also in the office of the CEO, Vincent Bolloré.
the police are wondering today if indeed the Breton group used its billionaire advertising arm, Havas, to facilitate the acquisition of port management in Guinea Conakry and Lome in Togo.
“Regarding its port activities, the Bolloré Group recalls that s’ This considerable investment, made in partnership with other international groups. They represent commitments over several decades and for which they are selected exclusively based on the amount and technical qualities of the investments “, the statement said.
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