Posted Oct 3, 2022, 5:07 PMUpdated Oct 3, 2022, 5:30 PM
This Monday, the national financial prosecutor, Jean-François Bohnert, announced in a press release the indictment, on September 23, of the secretary general of the presidential palace, Alexis Kohler, in the investigation into his links with the shipowner MSC. The right arm of Emmanuel Macron, 49, is being prosecuted for illegal taking of interests. He was also placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for influence peddling.
The lawyer for number 2 of the Elysée, Eric Dezeuze, replied that his client “forcefully denies having committed any offense”. “Without taking into consideration at this stage the many objective exculpatory elements, Alexis Kohler was placed under the status of indicted for illegal taking of interest for facts that may date back more than ten years”, a-t – he explained, affirming that “the rest of the procedure, to which he now has access” would “allow him to demonstrate his innocence”.
The investigation was opened on June 4, 2018 after “the publication of several press articles”, initiated by Mediapart, on a possible conflict of interest between Alexis Kohler’s former positions in the senior civil service and his family ties with MSC, very important customer of the company STX France (today renamed Chantiers de l’Atlantique) which manages the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire. They noted the close family and professional ties between Alexis Kohler and the Italian-Swiss shipowner, founded and run by his mother’s cousins, the Aponte family.
Short-lived CFO of MSC
After having sat on the board of directors of STX France between 2010 and 2012 as a representative of the State while working at the Agence des participations de l’Etat, Alexis Kohler had twice wanted to join MSC , each time after having exercised functions within ministerial cabinets in Bercy. The first time, in April 2014, the Ethics Commission, the body responsible for monitoring the departure of public officials in the private sector, opposed his request.
In August 2016, when Emmanuel Macron left the Ministry of the Economy, Alexis Kohler finally got the green light from the commission and joined MSC Cruises as Chief Financial Officer. Post he left a few months later, after the election of Emmanuel Macron, in May 2017, to become secretary general of the Elysée.
His family ties with the shipowner would never have been mentioned during this process. In May 2018, Alexis Kohler had told Mediapart to have “always deported” (to have departed from the debates, editor’s note) when he had to know, as a senior official, files concerning MSC.
Several complaints filed
A first complaint for illegal taking of interest and influence peddling was filed on June 4, 2018 by the Anticor association. She then filed several other complaints, in particular for “false and use of forgery” and “substantial omission of her interests”. In August 2019, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office had dismissed the preliminary investigation targeting No. 2 of the Elysée. But Anticor had obtained the relaunch of the investigation at the beginning of 2020.
According to the press release from the PNF, quoted by franceinfo , this indictment thus comes “in the context of a judicial investigation opened following a complaint with civil action filed on January 30, 2020 by the Anticor association before the dean of the investigating judges of the judicial court from Paris “. “No judicial control measure has been taken” against Alexis Kohler, adds franceinfo.
