Raids to the Bolloré tower. Investigators from the Central Office for the fight against corruption and financial and tax offenses (OCLCIFF) went to Puteaux in the offices of CEO Vincent Bolloré – absent during the operation – the CEO and the Legal Director group, explained the sources, confirming a report in World . The raid at the headquarters of Bolloré Africa Logistics Group, was conducted as part of a judicial inquiry entrusted to financial judges 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 financial national floor.
“The police are wondering if the Breton billionaire group used its Havas advertising arm facilitate the acquisition of port management in Guinea Conakry and Lome in Togo, “writes Le Monde . “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.
“This is a fantasy”
It is investigating the Relations Francis Perez, president of Pefaco group, a company specializing in the hospitality and gaming and very established in Africa, that investigators were led to consider the African activities of the industrialist Vincent Bolloré. For the lawyer of the group, the Pefaco company is “completely unknown Bolloré and Havas.”
According to Le Monde , Francis Perez among its relationship Jean-Philippe Dorent , employee of the communications company Havas (60% owned by Bolloré), which is “particularly busy in 2010 of Guinea’s presidential campaign candidate Alpha Conde.” “From there to make a correlation with the Bolloré group (and obtaining concessions, Ed), it is not credible,” “this is a fantasy,” argued Mr. Baratelli. “A concession is serious, we need an industrial know-how, financial area of technicality,” he defended. In a statement, the Bolloré group says that in terms of port activities, “there is considerable investment (…) for which they are selected exclusively based on the amount and technical qualities of the investments’ .
Sentenced in 2013
the President of the Republic of Guinea, Alpha Conde, elected in November 2010, was terminated on 8 March 2011, by decree, the terminal’s concession agreement Conakry port containers granted in 2008 for a term of 25 years to 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 be paid over two million at NCT Necotrans.
Solicited, a spokesman of Havas Havas said has “ceased all communication policy since 2011″. Moreover, according to the newspaper, 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 Faure Gnassingbe, 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.
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