Searches took place this Tuesday, November 26, 2024, in different locations in the fishing port of Keroman, in Lorient. And in particular at the headquarters of the mixed economy company Lorient-Keroman (SEMLK) chaired, since November 2020, by Olivier Le Nézet and of which Lorient Agglomération is the majority shareholder. As confirmed by the Paris National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to Télégramme, these searches take place as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the PNF, in April 2024, on charges of illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds , concealment and laundering of these offenses. This investigation was entrusted to the Territorial Directorate of the Judicial Police (DTPJ) of Rennes, in co-referral with the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF). A procedure opened after the anti-corruption association Anticor56 filed, last February, a report with the Lorient prosecutor for illegal taking of interests and misappropriation of public funds in the context of the port project in Duqm, in Oman.
“Opaque” operation according to Anticor
The project, born in mid-2019, accelerated in March 2021, when Lorient won a call for tenders to design and operate the port of Duqm, in Oman, for 28 years, via SAS Ker' Oman, chaired by Maurice Benoish, former director of the port of Lorient. A company owned then (and until October 2023) 80% by SEM Lorient-Keroman and for the remaining 20% in equal shares by Maurice Benoish and Louis Le Bourlout. Since then, the SEM's share has been reduced with the arrival of new shareholders, including Freddie Follezou, who, in January 2023, resigned from his position as deputy vice-president of the economy at Lorient Agglomération. On the other hand, Anticor56 questions the aid from Lorient Agglomération to SAS Ker'Oman (225,000 euros granted in March 2023 and reimbursed in June 2024). This financial arrangement led Anticor56 to alert the public prosecutor of Lorient. “But, given the complexity of the financing, we suggested that he alert the PNF,” explains Stéphane Bigata, co-referent of Anticor56. The latter “hopes that this entire operation will be clarified because it is extremely opaque”.
Contacted, Olivier Le Nézet, president of SEM Lorient-Keroman, confirms that a search took place at the company's headquarters. He specifies that this took place “as part of his participation in SAS Ker'Oman. The procedure was carried out in complete transparency and as an open book. The SEMLK remains at the disposal of the investigation services for its investigation.” Fabrice Loher, president of Lorient Agglomération, did not wish to comment on “a police action as part of an investigation. I hope that the collection of information will take place with the greatest transparency.” For his part, Maurice Benoish, president of SAS Ker'Oman, explains that he has “no comment to make. We are calm, we let things happen.” It was not possible to contact Freddie Follezou and Louis Le Bourlout. The ecologist Damien Girard had warned, as early as 2023, about this port project in Duqm. Now a deputy, he wants “all light (to be shed) on the facts and on the responsibility of SEM Lorient-Keroman, SAS Ker'Oman and Lorient Agglomération”.
