Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA01894 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 1 Jun 2001 03:07:26 +0100 Subject: le corruption Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 22:03:17 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID: <20010601020320.AAA17962@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.23]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi-
This seems slightly timely, as least as far as that dwindled talk of
corruption is concerned....
It seems as rampant in France as I suspected it was everywhere else....
"In fact, investigations into corruption are now so numerous that earlier
this year, one prominent Socialist, Bertrand Delanoë, who is now mayor of
Paris, summed up the situation by saying that if all those accused were
convicted, French politics would "be an empty field.""
- Wade
**************
May 31, 2001
Former French Official Found Guilty in Sweeping Graft Case
By SUZANNE DALEY
PARIS, May 30 ‹ A Paris court sentenced the flamboyant former foreign
minister, Roland Dumas, to six months in jail today and also convicted
four co-defendants in a huge corruption case that has shaken France's
political establishment and transfixed the public with its heady
revelations of sex, power and greed among the once-revered elite.
Today's result seems sure to send shivers down the spines of dozens of
prominent officials from all across the political spectrum who are
currently under investigation. Even President Jacques Chirac is fighting
allegations that he masterminded a vast illicit fund-raising scheme when
he was mayor of Paris.
The conviction of Mr. Dumas, who was also ordered to pay a $130,000 fine,
and other powerful associates of the late President François Mitterrand
was a victory for a new aggressive group of investigating magistrates. In
recent years, they have opened dozens of investigations into corruption
and exposed the way business and politics intersected for decades here.
Throughout the case, prosecutors argued that Mr. Dumas, now 78, had
arranged for his mistress to get a job at an oil company, Elf Aquitaine,
which was then state-owned, and then benefited from the nearly $9 million
that the company showered on her between 1989 and 1993. Later privatized,
Elf Aquitaine found that some of the Mitterrand appointees who had run it
while it was state- owned had siphoned off more than $250 million,
company executives charged later. Elf later merged with other companies
as TotalFinaElf.
The court ruled today that Mr. Dumas had illegally received gifts and
cash from Elf. Four of his co- defendants, including his former mistress,
Christine Deviers-Joncour, also were convicted of corruption and received
jail sentences.
Mr. Dumas, silver-haired and sharp-tongued, was belligerent through much
of the trial. At one point he threatened to "take care" of the
investigating magistrates when the case was over. But today, he left the
courtroom without speaking.
His lawyer, Jean-René Farthouat, nevertheless, claimed a victory of
sorts, noting that Mr. Dumas' sentence was considerably more lenient than
the two-year jail sentence requested by the prosecutors. In addition, Mr.
Dumas, who had to step down as head of the French Constitutional Court to
face the charges, was not convicted on all counts.
"There is reason to think that we are taking the case apart piece by
piece," Mr. Farthouat said, adding that Mr. Dumas would appeal. "A house
does not fall all in one go." Ms. Deviers-Joncour, who wrote a book about
her years as Mr. Dumas' lover titled "Whore of the Republic," was
sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined the equivalent of about
$200,000. Ms. Deviers-Joncour, 53, had showered Mr. Dumas with gifts,
including a $1,700 pair of shoes and antique Greek statuettes worth about
$40,000.
Ms. Deviers-Joncour, a former underwear model who maintained throughout
the trial that she had merely been a pawn in tangled politics she did not
understand, seemed on the verge of tears as she hurried from the
courtroom.
Another co-defendant, Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, a former chairman of Elf,
was handed a three-and-a-half- year prison term and a $260,000 fine.
Another former Elf executive, Alfred Sirven, who was on the run during
most of the trial and refused to defend himself when he was finally
tracked down and extradited from the Philippines, received a four-year
prison term and a $260,000 fine.
The Dumas case was one of the first of the recent, more vigorous
prosecutions of corruption to reach the courts. For decades, allegations
of corruption among public officials were rarely pursued with much vigor.
But in the last five years all that has been changing. Magistrates have
laid bare a culture of corruption in France's political ranks, where
kickbacks and ghost jobs for friends and family members appear to have
been routine.
Their tactics have often been tough; police officers have searched
government ministers' homes and hauled even the most well-connected
members of the elite ‹ including Mr. Mitterrand's son ‹ off to jail for
questioning.
Ms. Deviers-Joncour and Mr. Le Floch-Prigent spent months in jail for
refusing to answer questions.
There are dozens of similar cases presently hanging fire.
Investigators are still looking into allegations that Mr. Chirac's former
ally, Jean Tiberi, rigged votes and provided ghost jobs. And another
former Chirac ally, Charles Pasqua, is being investigated for his role in
illegal arms sales.
On the other side of the political aisle, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a
former finance minister under the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin,
is scheduled to go on trial this year on charges that he backdated
documents to hide an illegal payment.
He is also being investigated for giving tax breaks in exchange for a
copy of a videotaped confession that charges Mr. Chirac with
masterminding a vast kickback scheme when he was mayor of Paris between
1977 and 1995.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn apparently never did anything with the cassette, but it
came to light recently anyway. The tape was made by a former Chirac aide
who has since died. But the aide's confession has apparently been
buttressed by other witnesses. The investigating magistrate in the case
recently filed papers with the court saying he had "credible evidence"
against Mr. Chirac. But he acknowledged that his hands were tied because
as president Mr. Chirac enjoys immunity from prosecution.
Still, Mr. Chirac is now facing a small, but growing movement in
Parliament to impeach him.
In fact, investigations into corruption are now so numerous that earlier
this year, one prominent Socialist, Bertrand Delanoë, who is now mayor of
Paris, summed up the situation by saying that if all those accused were
convicted, French politics would "be an empty field."
The Dumas trial opened in January and never lacked drama. Ms.
Deviers-Joncour often cried. Mr. Dumas often made speeches and a key
co-defendant, Mr. Sirven, could not be found. For weeks, all the
defendants seemed to blame the missing man for just about everything that
happened.
But halfway through the trial, authorities found Mr. Sirven. However,
once he arrived in Paris, Mr. Sirven, who once bragged he knew enough
about corrupt French officials "to bring down the Republic 20 times," did
not make good on his threat. He refused to testify and sat out the trial
in La Santé prison in Paris, where he remains.
Two defendants in the case were acquitted yesterday. Both were lesser
executives at Elf, Andre Tarallo and Jean-Claude Vauchez. But a
businessman who was also a former boyfriend of Ms. Deviers-Joncour,
Gilbert Miara, was found guilty of fraud and given an 18-month sentence
and a $130,000 fine.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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