Nicolas Sarkozy predicted that French police would come looking for him days
before his marital home with Carla Bruni and his office was raided as part
of an ongoing illegal campaign funding scandal.
Fraud
squad officers and an investigating magistrate yesterday searched the Paris
home of Mr Sarkozy and his wife, as well as the office he moved into
since losing his re-election bid in May. Reports of a raid at the offices of
a law firm where he is an associate were denied this morning.
Mr
Sarkozy lost his judicial immunity as head of state two weeks ago.
Magistrates are investigating claims that house staff of Liliane Bettencourt,
heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire and France’s
richest woman, handed over brown envelopes stuffed with cash to Mr Sarkozy
and his aides to finance his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
On holiday in Canada since Monday, Mr Sarkozy has made no public comment on
the raids. But Le Parisien quoted him as telling friends in recent days: “I
know they’ll come looking for me. Nothing will come of it all.”
He has previously dismissed suggestions he received illegal payments as an
electoral “stink bomb”.
This morning Socialist interior minister Manuel Valls said: “(Sarkozy) is
answerable to the law like anyone else. Justice must shine a light (on this
case).” While insisting his role was to “respect the independence of the
justice system, these inquiries, these raids”, Mr Valls added that France
was going through a “moral crisis” after five years under Mr Sarkozy.
A judicial source cited by Libération newspaper said: “It was obvious even
before these raids that judge (Jean-Michel) Gentil would summon (Mr
Sarkozy). It is now inevitable.”
One Sarkozy ally was quoted by Le Parisien as accusing the judge of “show
justice” and a “publicity stunt”.
Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer claims his official diary of 2007 proves it was
“materially impossible” for him to have personally visited Mrs Bettencourt
and her late husband André to allegedly pick up cash envelopes. But Antoine
Gillot, lawyer for Mrs Bettencourt’s former book keeper and butler told
Libération: “These raids prove that the documents Sarkozy gave the judge
prove nothing.”
The judge in the Bettencourt case is also investigating whether the aged
billionaire’s entourage is guilty of “abuse of weakness” – taking
advantage of her waning mental capacities for financial gain.
Eleven people have already been charged in the case.
Several former employees of Mrs Bettencourt and her late husband André have
the told the judge that Mr Sarkozy discreetly turned up in person to their
mansion in Neuilly at least twice before his election in February and April
2007. These staff members include her former chauffeur, nurse and butler.
Days after losing his presidential immunity, Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry
Herzog, sent the judge his diary in the weeks before his 2007 election,
saying it proved that no “supposedly secret rendezvous” to receive
illicit funding could have taken place.
There is only one official mention of a meeting between Mr Sarkozy and the
Bettencourts in the diary, which shows he paid a brief visit on February 24,
2007, two months before the first round of presidential elections.
Mr Herzog
claimed this was a “courtesy call” that lasted 20 to 25 minutes,
that any other meetings would have been mentioned, and that diary showed it
was “materially impossible” for Mr Sarkozy to have been present in
other dates mentioned by staff.
Mr Herzog confirmed the former president, who lost his re-election battle to
Socialist François Hollande last month, said on Tuesday: “These
raids … will prove to be, as expected, futile.”
Mrs Bettencourt was placed under legal guardianship in October, after a
marathon legal battle over her 16 billion-euro (£12.8 billion) fortune.
It
began when her estranged daughter Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers accused a
society photographer and other advisers of taking advantage of the heiress,
who suffers from dementia.
Judge Gentil has cited two suspect withdrawals of 400,000 euros each from
Swiss bank accounts on behalf of Mrs Bettencourt’s former wealth manager
Patrice de Maistre, also under investigation. He spent almost three months
in prison while the judge repeatedly quizzed him on where the money went.
The first withdrawal was made on February 5, 2007, two days before a meeting
between Mr de Maistre and Eric Woerth, at the time Mr Sarkozy’s campaign
treasurer.
Mr Woerth later became labour minister but resigned in 2010 over the
mushrooming funding scandal and in 2011 police carried out searches of his
home and offices of Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party.
Mrs Bettencourt’s accountant,
Claire Thibout, has testified to having been asked in 2007 to provide
150,000 euros to Mr Woerth. He faces charges of receiving cash payments and
a conflict of interest. He denies any wrongdoing.
The second questionable withdrawal was made on April 26, 2007 – four days
after the first round of the presidential election that Mr Sarkozy
eventually won.
The judge is also intrigued by a suspicious diary entry by Mrs Bettencourt’s
photographer friend François-Marie Banier, who wrote on April 26, 2007, that
the heiress mentioned a “request for money” from Mr Sarkozy to
which she “said yes”.
French law limits individual donations to political parties to 7,500 euros
(£6,000) per person per year and 4,600 euros (£3,700) during political
campaigns. Only 150 euros (£120) may be given in cash.
Mr Sarkozy is potentially facing questioning in a separate probe into who
ordered French intelligence services to unlawfully identify the source of
journalists investigating the Bettencourt scandal.
Henry Samuel – Paris – July 4, 2012 – Telegraph.uk
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