The prescription raised by the secretary general of the Élysée was not enough to convince the judges. The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Tuesday November 26, 2024 the prosecution of Alexis Kohler for illegally taking an interest in the investigation into his family ties with the shipowner MSC. This decision could be the subject of an appeal by Alexis Kohler and the two other defendants.
Emmanuel Macron's right-hand man has been indicted since 2022 for illegal acquisition 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.
Facts dating back to the years 2009-2012
The investigating chamber had examined in camera on 1is October the request of Alexis Kohler, who is first implicated for facts dating back to the years 2009-2012, when he served as a representative of the State Participation Agency (APE) within the council of administration of STX France (now Chantiers de l'Atlantique) but also on the board of directors of the Grand maritime port of Le Havre (GPMH).
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.
Alexis Kohler claims to have always stayed away
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.
On 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-Louis Comolli (2010-2012), implicated for their “pact of silence” with Alexis Kohler which would result from an “embarrassment” regarding this situation, had also argued that these facts were prescribed, but the court of appeal rejected their appeals.
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