In 2014, the energy branch (“Power and Grid”) of the French multinational Alstom, specialized in transportation, was purchased by the American giant General Electric (GE) for 12.3 billion euros. Ten years after this controversial sale operation, the world learned that an investigating judge had dismissed the case in one of the aspects of the extensive Alstom case investigated by French justice; but also that since December 2022 a judicial investigation had been carried out into another part of the matter, linked to the role played by Emmanuel Macron when he was Minister of the Economy, from August 2014 to August 2016. This ongoing investigation points to the actors. who potentially benefited from an alleged corrupt scheme surrounding said sales operation. Contacted, the Elysée did not respond.
On October 25, a dismissal order was issued within the framework of a judicial investigation carried out for “corruption of foreign public officials” and cover-up of this crime. This investigation concerned tens of millions of dollars in bribes paid to foreign officials, based on the alleged decision or validation of Alstom executives, from the early 2000s to 2011, to acquire contracts, especially in Taiwan, Indonesia , Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
In December 2014, the Alstom company was condemned for this fact. “backlash system” by the American justice system to pay a fine of 772 million dollars (630 million euros) within the framework of a guilty plea procedure. One of the French directors of the group, Frédéric Pierucci, was sentenced to thirty months of detention in the United States. At that time, the general director of the multinational was Patrick Kron, who benefited from a bonus of 4.1 million euros, in December 2014, for the sale of the energy sector to GE, and then from a pension of several million euros, in January 2016, upon his departure from the group.
Anticor requests continuation of the investigation
“The investigation showed that the Alstom company put in place a corrupt system to facilitate the obtaining of international contracts, using in particular two Swiss and British entities to sign intermediation contracts and pay bribes. develops a judicial source. The various acts of corruption identified by the investigation have already been subject to sanctions by various foreign authorities. If the magnitude, repetition and duration of the acts of corruption within the Alstom group raise doubts about possible failures of the governing bodies, the judicial information did not allow the French directors or directors of the group to be implicated. »
You have 66.1% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
