Anne Michel and Simon Piel - Rafale case: Fresh moves towards a corruption investigation
On April 22, the Sherpa association lodged a complaint against X with the constitution of a civil party to open a judicial investigation into the highly sensitive case of the sale of 36 combat aircraft by Dassault Aviation to India in 2016. The Sherpa association, which fights against economic crime, is bringing back to court an ultra-sensitive and politically inflammable case: the Rafale affair, this sale of 36 French fighter planes by Dassault Aviation to India, in 2016, on which weigh heavy suspicions of corruption, now widely documented by the Indian and French press.
According
to information from Le Monde, Sherpa lodged a complaint against X
with the constitution of a civil party, Thursday, April 22, with the judicial
tribunal of Paris, for acts of "corruption and active and passive
influence peddling", "concealment of corruption, influence peddling
and favouritism”, “active money laundering and influence peddling” and
“concussion”.
After two
unsuccessful attempts to refer the matter to the National Financial
Prosecutor's Office (PNF) - a report dated October 26, 2018 closed without
action, then a complaint of May 21, 2019 that went unheeded - this new
offensive by the anti-corruption association aims to obtain the opening of a
judicial investigation, to shed light on the conditions under which this
strategic military contract at 7.9 billion euros was concluded between the
French aircraft manufacturer and the government of Narendra Modi, in particular
for the benefit of a friend of the Indian Prime Minister, the powerful
industrialist Anil Ambani. Finalized under the presidency of François Hollande
after long years of negotiations, it was piloted from the top of the state,
with the economic diplomacy of the time.
YANN PHILIPPIN - Sale of French Rafale jet fighters to India: how a state scandal was buried
Supported
suspicions
While the
file was already loaded with revelations, Sherpa's complaint follows new
information from Mediapart, at the beginning of April, on the
payment of possible kickbacks to a sulphurous intermediary in India, already
involved for money laundering in another sales case. helicopters in the
country, and the very political burial of this potential “state affair” by the
PNF and the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA).
"In 2018, there were strong suspicions of corruption and favouritism, but today these suspicions have been supported by the investigations of Mediapart and Le Monde as well as by the action of Indian NGOs," says William Bourdon, one of Sherpa's lawyers, who is also its founding president. The opening of a judicial investigation will finally make the investigation possible." In terms of law, the penal code allows any approved anti-corruption association declared for at least five years as Sherpa is to exercise the rights granted to the civil party, for offenses of "corruption and influence peddling" as well. than "concealment or money laundering." Judicial information can be opened on the constitution of a civil party, provided that a simple complaint has been previously filed.
Cancelled
tax adjustment
What do we
know today about the Rafale affair, according to the work of the press? The
revelations have been growing, especially in the area of favouritism,
since the signing of the contract between France and India on September 23,
2016, around the famous beneficiary of the contract, Anil Ambani. Indeed, this
industrialist close to Indian power did not appear in the initial negotiations,
initiated in 2012 between Dassault, winner of a call for tenders, and the
public Indian aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, with a view
to the delivery of 126 aircraft. French, including 108 assembled on Indian
soil. The “contract of the century”, we then commented.
But the
Indian Prime Minister finally imposed Mr. Ambani, thanks to a dramatic turn of
events at the end of April 2015, which surprised even the Indian Ministry of
Defence: exit the call for tenders and the transfer of technology, India would
no longer buy 126 Rafale but 36, all produced and assembled in France, within
the framework of an intergovernmental agreement. The Indian public manufacturer
must then give way to Mr. Ambani, inexperienced in aeronautics, who creates a
special purpose company, Reliance Aerostructure Limited, even before the
official signing of the contract. This close friend of Mr. Modi becomes one of
the main beneficiaries, alongside other Indian companies, of the juicy offset
of the contract, of around 4 billion euros - this part of the contract to be
reinvested in India in the form of compensation industrial, providing for the
establishment of joint ventures between Anil Ambani and Dassault or its
industrial partners, including Thales.
In April
2019, Le Monde revealed that in 2015, when the sale of the Rafale was being
negotiated, France cancelled a tax adjustment of more than 140 million euros,
however claimed for years, concerning a French company belonging to the
Reliance group of M. Ambani. Emmanuel Macron was then Finance Minister, but, in
2019, Bercy [the French Finance Ministry] told Le Monde that
no trace of any meeting between Mr. Macron and Mr. Ambani existed on the
official agendas. The news caused a scandal in India, even disrupting the
conduct of parliamentary elections.
Now,
therefore, Mediapart is driving the point home and implicating
the PNF and the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), which allegedly buried the
case in the name of the reason of state. The online news site claims that the
former PNF chief Eliane Houlette refused, in June 2019, to investigate the
case, against the advice of a deputy prosecutor, who was responsible for
analysing the first report of Sherpa. Sherpa's complaint was dismissed for
"no violation".
Concealed
information
In
addition, according to the online news site, the AFA, placed under the dual
supervision of the budget and justice ministers, would not have reported to the
courts a major discovery: the payment, by Dassault, " just after the
signing of the Rafale contract ", for a sum of" one million euros to
an intermediary, Sushen Gupta, indicted in another case ". An intermediary
who would have helped Dassault to close the sale, against the backdrop of the
payment of kickbacks. Also, according to the site, the aircraft manufacturer
justified this payment to the AFA by purchasing models of Rafale - its own
planes, therefore - "in dubious reality". These models would have
been paid 20,000 euros each. In this context, Mediapart wonders
about "the withdrawal of anti-corruption clauses" from the annexes to
the agreement between France and India.
From
Sherpa's point of view, all of these facts must be investigated by justice.
"We are in a case of exceptional corruption, by the actors involved, by
the stakes and by the means employed to hinder the emergence of the
truth," said William Bourdon and his partner Vincent Brengarth. "Two
facts have been established," they continue, "the corrupt flow and
the self-censorship of the Anti-Corruption Agency, which, given the very strong
commitment of the President of the AFA in favour of the fight against
corruption, makes it possible to suppose that a political intervention has
taken place. The question of obstruction of justice will necessarily arise
during the investigation. "
Asked, the PNF did not wish to react. "We do not open on simple unsubstantiated suspicions, had indicated its head at the time, Ms. Houlette, at Paris Match, in July 2020, (...) We must weigh things well, protect the interests of France, the functioning of institutions. " For its part, the AFA, in the person of its director Charles Duchaine, assures the World that they "did not miss out on something illegal". "I can tell you that we have checked a number of points, including gifts and hospitality, which should not exceed reasonable or appear to be an action for a consideration," he explains. "Beyond that, we have information that allows us to believe that this operation, as questionable as it is on the form of compliance, is not fictitious", says Mr. Duchaine, who claims his "discretion" in the use of section 40, which obliges all officials to report a crime if they witness it.
As for Dassault Aviation, in a press release released on April 8, a spokesperson for the armaments group said that "many checks are carried out by official bodies including the French Anti-Corruption Agency. No breaches have been reported, especially under the contract with India. " This contract "was established from government to government", adds the industrialist, and it is executed "in full transparency between the various partners, both state and industry".
Posted on LeMonde.fr on April 27, 2021 at 7:48 p.m., updated yesterday at 10:08 a.m.
