Here is a new pebble in the acorns moccasins of the president of Paris Saint-Germain. Nasser al-Khelaïfi was indicted on February 5, in particular for complicity in abuse of power in the investigation relating to a possible attempt by Arnaud Lagardère in 2018 to change in his favor a key vote of the Qatari fund, then majority shareholder of his group.
A judicial source confirmed to AFP this indictment for complicity in voting purchase and breach of the freedom of the vote, as well as for complicity in abuse of powers. Justice wonders if the president of PSG has not played his influence so that the sovereign background of the Emirate Qia, in the majority shareholder time of the group, changed position in 2018 in an internal quarrel on the governance of Lagardère group and this in exchange for counterparts.
“This affair has absolutely and obviously nothing to do with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, but as usual, he will be associated with it by a completely misguided process as a resounding name (…) until this case is Founding in silence in a few years, “said a source close to” Nak “.
A change of vote that questions
At the heart of the case in question, 2018, when the Lagardère group was in full influence between Vincent Bolloré, ally of Amber Capital, and Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, who supported Arnaud Lagardère. On April 24, 2018, Qatar Holding LLC, a subsidiary of the Qatar Sovereign Fund Investment Authority (QIA) and the main shareholder, had positioned itself in favor of the resolutions of Amber Capital.
Arnaud Lagardère and his close team then called their contacts, including Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, Qatari boss of PSG and administrator of QIA. Five days after the first vote, the sovereign fund suddenly changed positions, finally deciding in favor of the resolutions of Mr. Lagardère’s governance.
In September 2018, a British-Moroccan diplomat near Doha, Jamal Benomar was appointed to the supervisory board of Lagardère SCA and presented as “independent member”, which could serve, according to the investigating magistrates, of a possible disguised counterpart. The Lagardère group was finally bought after a bitter battle at the end of November 2023 by Vivendi, the media giant and the publishing of the family of the conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Al-Khelaïfi referred to by several complaints and procedures
It is not the first time, and by far, that the Parisian president has affair to French justice. If his indictment for corruption in the file of candidates of Qatar at the 2017 and 2019 athletic Worlds of athletics was definitively canceled in mid-February 2023 by the Court of Cassation, which judged incompetent French justice to initiate prosecution against him , Parisian investigating judges look at the accusations of kidnapping and sequestration in Qatar, which said to have been the victim of the Franco-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane. Aimed, the boss of PSG refutes them and filed a complaint.
(Tagstotranslate) Sport