Bernard Arnault will have to cut short his trip abroad. Thursday, November 28 in the morning, a few hours before his initially planned return, the CEO of LVMH is expected at the Paris criminal court to be heard as a witness in the trial of Bernard Squarcini, former head of internal intelligence, and nine other people, announced the president of the court Benjamin Blanchet on the first day of the trial, Wednesday November 13. The ten defendants are referred for prevention charges ranging from “illegal exercise of private research agent” to “passive influence peddling”, mainly in connection with missions given to Mr. Squarcini by the luxury group.
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Mr. Arnault will have to answer the judges' questions on his possible knowledge of the surveillance and infiltration operation carried out by his group between 2013 and 2016, for the modest sum of 400,000 euros, on the newspaper Fakir and its co-founder, François Ruffin. Then a journalist – who has since become a deputy (various left) for the Somme – Mr. Ruffin prepared a documentary in 2013, Thanks boss!, whose main characters were a couple of workers laid off by a subcontractor of the LVMH group. He also planned to film a peaceful activist action at the general meeting of shareholders.
Reputational risk
The CEO of LVMH had already been heard in 2019 by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) as a witness. He then declared that Bernard Squarcini worked under the authority of his right-hand man, Pierre Godé, who died in January 2018, and that he knew nothing of the requests made by his vice-president. Several exchanges in the file, however, attest to contacts between “Squale” and Bernard Arnault’s secretary.
It is unlikely that Mr. Arnault will change his version in court. His presence, however, is an obligation, theoretically: it follows a subpoena requested by François Ruffin. But if the code of criminal procedure provides for financial sanctions and the issuance of a warrant in the event of absence without legitimate reason, or even a postponement of the trial, these provisions are not systematically applied if the witness has already been heard during the procedure. The reputational risk of being escorted to court by police officers, however, remained for Bernard Arnault, boss of a group listed on the stock exchange.
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