Alexis Kohler, Emmanuel Macron's right-hand man, loses a crucial round in court

JUSTICE – This is a major procedural setback for Emmanuel Macron’s right arm. The Paris Court of Appeal dismissed this Tuesday, November 26, the prescription raised by the Secretary General of the Élysée, Alexis Kohler, and confirmed the proceedings against him for illegally taking interests in the investigation into his family ties with the shipowner MSC.

This decision, confirmed by a judicial source, could be the subject of an appeal by Alexis Kohler and the two other people involved.

MP Sandrine Rousseau reacted immediately on the Bluesky social network, affirming that “in a democracy, (Alexis Kohler) should resign”.

The secretary general of the Élysée has been under investigation since 2022 for illegal taking of interests for having participated as a senior official from 2009 to 2016 in several decisions relating to the Italian-Swiss shipowner run by his mother's cousins, the family Aponte.

The investigating chamber examined in camera on October 1 the request of Alexis Kohler, who is first implicated for facts dating back to the years 2009-2012, when he officiated as a representative of the Participation Agency of the State (APE) within the board of directors of STX France (now Chantiers de l'Atlantique) but also on the board of directors of the Grand maritime port of Le Havre (GPMH).

A decision “satisfactory” for Anticor's lawyer

He is then suspected of having, between 2012 and 2016, participated in choices on files involving MSC in Bercy, in the cabinet of Pierre Moscovici then Emmanuel Macron.

From the beginning, Alexis Kohler's defense claims on the one hand that he always kept himself away from any decision relating to MSC and that he informed his superiors of the existence of family ties “far beyond its ethical obligations”. On the other hand, it ensures at the end of a legal calculation that at least part of the facts, prior to 2014, are prescribed.

This Tuesday, the investigating chamber adopted a position different from the general prosecutor's office of the Court of Appeal and from that followed for a long time by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in this case, by conforming to the vision of the investigating magistrates.

The investigating chamber in fact confirmed an order of April 2023 by which the investigating judges concluded that the facts were not prescribed, in particular because of the “positive acts to conceal” this conflict of interest attributed to Alexis Kohler.

Two former bosses of the APE, Bruno Bézard (2007-2010) and Jean-Dominique Comolli (2010-2012), implicated for their “pact of silence” with Alexis Kohler which would result from a “embarrassment” regarding this situation, had also argued that these facts were prescribed, but the court of appeal rejected their appeals.

Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer for Anticor, civil party behind the relaunch of the investigations after the closing of a preliminary investigation in August 2019, described to AFP the decision as “satisfactory, especially given the numerous attempts to bury the file, including on the part of the president (Emmanuel Macron) himself”.

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