The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) decided to refer the case of Vincent Bolloré and two officials to an examining magistrate after the non-approval of their "plead guilty" at the end of February for in particular acts of corruption in Togo, has t he indicated to AFP on Sunday March 21.
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At the end of an investigation entrusted in 2013 to investigating judges and two months of negotiations with the PNF, Vincent Bolloré, Gilles Alix, general manager of the Bolloré group, and Jean-Philippe Dorent, international director of the communication Havas (a subsidiary of Bolloré) had accepted an appearance on prior acknowledgment of guilt (CRPC), a sort of French-style "plead guilty".
But during the hearing, on February 28, magistrate Isabelle Prévost-Deprez refused to approve the CRPC, which provided for the payment of a fine of 375,000 euros for each of the three defendants, considering that the serious facts should be tried by the criminal court.
The order for the dismissal of the three men through the CRPC
"was rendered null and void following the non-approval"
of the procedure, explained the PNF.
“This aspect of the case is therefore up to the examining magistrate, the PNF having decided not to bring the three defendants to the criminal court”
, as he had the possibility, he added.
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At the same hearing, the magistrate, on the other hand, approved the Judicial Convention of Public Interest (CJIP) - "plead guilty" for companies - targeting the Bolloré group, prosecuted for the same facts.
This agreement was
"executed by the payment of the fine - 12 million euros - made on March 8"
to the Treasury, said the PNF.
The group will also have to set up, for four million euros, a program to comply with the rules of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA).
Nevertheless,
"the PNF lodged, on Friday, an appeal for excess of power before the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation"
because of several references, in the validation order of the CJIP of the three CRPCs which ultimately did not been approved, said the financial prosecutor.
The CJIP could therefore be invalidated for a technical defect and return to the presidency of the tribunal which will then have to rule on its approval, but the PNF does not intend to call it into question.
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