The national financial prosecutor's office requested this Friday that Rachida Dati and the former boss of Renault-Nissan Carlos Ghosn be tried for corruption and influence peddling. The Minister of Culture protests.
The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati denounced this Friday, November 15, an “infamous” and “shocking” indictment, after the request by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for a trial for corruption and influence peddling against her and that of former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn.
In a press release, the minister evokes an “instrumentalization of this affair by (his) political opponents in contempt of all principles” and assures to face “this new ordeal with serenity and determination”
900,000 euros in question
Rachida Dati, 58, is suspected of having received, “in complete confidentiality, even in complete opacity”, 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 for consulting services recorded in a fee agreement signed on October 28, 2009 with RNBV, subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, but without having actually worked, while she was a lawyer and MEP (2009-2019).
The investigations also sought to determine whether this fee agreement could have been used to hide lobbying activity in the European Parliament, which is prohibited to any elected official.
According to Rachida Dati, the “documents” that she presented to the national financial prosecutor “attest and demonstrate in detail that (s)her lawyer agreement is neither concealed nor secret”. And “all my fee invoices appear in the accounts of the Renault Nissan group in my name and my first name in my capacity as a lawyer”, she specifies in her press release.
“This file is only a settling of scores”
In addition, “the managers of Renault Nissan at the time, as well as the authorities of the countries concerned, all expressed their satisfaction with the work carried out”, affirms the minister. “Regarding the accusations of lobbying or corruption within the European Parliament, this is a pure intellectual construction which ignores the reality of the functioning of the European Parliament,” she adds.
“This file is only a settling of scores between Messrs. Senard (former president of Renault, editor’s note) and Carlos Ghosn in which I am today a collateral victim,” concludes Ms. Dati.
After initially being placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness, she was indicted in July 2021.
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