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Tapie arbitration trial: Stéphane Richard refutes any "instruction" on appeal

2020-10-19T18:49:36.507Z


Orange boss Stéphane Richard, retried in Paris alongside Bernard Tapie in the controversial Crédit Lyonnais arbitration case in 2008, refuted Wednesday October 19 to have given " an instruction " in this case while he was chief of staff to the Minister of the Economy Christine Lagarde. To read also: Bernard Tapie to the Marseillais: "You will be forever the first" " The idea that I gave the inst


Orange boss Stéphane Richard, retried in Paris alongside Bernard Tapie in the controversial Crédit Lyonnais arbitration case in 2008, refuted Wednesday October 19 to have given "

an instruction

" in this case while he was chief of staff to the Minister of the Economy Christine Lagarde.

To read also: Bernard Tapie to the Marseillais: "You will be forever the first"

"

The idea that I gave the instruction to go to arbitration is completely inept,

" said the CEO of Orange before the court of appeal, which is trying this case after the release pronounced in July 2019 in favor of Messrs. Tapie, Richard and four other defendants.

Prosecuted for "

complicity in fraud

" and "

complicity in embezzlement of public funds

", Stéphane Richard is suspected of having played a decisive role in the choice to favor a private arbitration procedure in order to settle the old dispute between Bernard Tapie and Credit Lyonnais since the resale of Adidas in the 1990s.

But I wasn't the one who brought this idea of ​​refereeing to the table!

"

As in the first instance, the 59-year-old enarque, CEO of the Orange group since 2011, assured that an arbitration was in 2007 the subject of "

a fairly broad consensus within the state apparatus

" because it made it possible to "

find a way out

" to a "

soap opera which (had lasted) for about fifteen years

".

But I wasn't the one who brought this idea of ​​refereeing to the table!

", Defended Stéphane Richard, adding that she was"

born six months before the presidential election

"and the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Read also: Arbitration case: Bernard Tapie absent from the hearing on Wednesday

After 15 years in the private sector, Stéphane Richard, a former financial inspector, was appointed in June 2007 chief of staff, first of Jean-Louis Borloo, then of Christine Lagarde.

He is accused of having hidden from the Minister notes hostile to arbitration, as well as the presence of Bernard Tapie at a crucial meeting at the Elysee Palace on July 30, 2007, just before entering arbitration.

"

Maybe

" he should have "

mentioned the presence of Bernard Tapie

", admitted the boss of Orange, even if according to him that would not have changed anything.

Ex-business lawyer, "

Christine Lagarde has never contested the merits of an arbitration,

" said Stéphane Richard.

Not to oppose this arbitration was a "

decision assumed

" by the government, he insisted.

Christine Lagarde was sentenced at the end of 2016 by the Court of Justice of the Republic, for not having appealed against the arbitration award which granted in July 2008 to Bernard Tapie 403 million euros, including 45 for "non-

pecuniary damage

" .

This sentence has since been definitively annulled in civil proceedings for “

fraud

” and the businessman was ordered to reimburse the millions collected.

In criminal proceedings, the former boss of Olympique de Marseille is retried for "

fraud

".

Very weakened by a double cancer, he left the audience before the interrogation of Stéphane Richard.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-10-19

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