A preliminary investigation has been opened for suspicion of bribery of a foreign public official targeting Cifal, a French trading company operating in Russia, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) said on Friday, confirming information from Challenges magazine.
According to a source familiar with the matter, Cifal was commissioned by the Congolese company Orion - headed by Lucien Ebata, special adviser to the President of Congo-Brazzaville Denis Sassou Nguesso - to find an investor in Russia to sell its shares in the MBK oil field to. congo.
With this in mind, the leader of Cifal Gilles Rémy appealed to François Fillon to put him in touch with a Russian businessman, with whom the former Prime Minister had been in contact when he headed the government, this source continued.
In this contract, François Fillon was remunerated as a business contributor.
No suspicion of corruption currently hangs over him, said the source familiar with the matter.
François Fillon, who once sat on two boards of directors of Russian giants - Sibur (petrochemicals) and Zarubezhneft (hydrocarbons) - must be heard on May 2 on his links with Moscow by the commission of inquiry into foreign interference. .
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This commission was launched by the National Rally to try to put an end to the accusations making this far-right party an agent of Russian influence in France.
Lucien Ebata has been indicted in Paris, in particular for money laundering and corruption, as part of a judicial investigation opened by the PNF in 2020. Investigators are trying to find out if he embezzled Congolese oil money.
