This is a stain. Suspicions of corruption hover over the purchasing department of the Ministry of the Interior. So much so that the PNF (National Financial Prosecutor’s Office) has opened a preliminary investigation for corruption, illegal taking of interest and influence peddling, a judicial source said on Wednesday, confirming information from Mediapart. The investigations target several business leaders and several military personnel.
Among them, General Xavier Lejeune, figure in the service responsible for orders and distribution of equipment for the gendarmerie, police and Civil Security, said the judicial source. Xavier Lejeune was taken into police custody in March 2023.
“Seriousness” and “likelihood of the facts”
“As soon as the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN) became aware of an investigation opened by the PNF, General Lejeune was suspended from his functions”, then “left active service on September 1, 2023”, a ensured the gendarmerie.
A ruling from the Council of State confirmed his suspension, emphasizing “the seriousness and plausibility of the facts” with which he is accused at this stage. The investigations relate, among other things, to a contract awarded by a company awarded a public contract to a subcontractor, according to the judicial source.
-A “volunteer” business leader
Among the business leaders suspected, a certain Gérard B., already convicted in 2011 for influence peddling in obtaining a major contract from the Ministry of Defense for the benefit of a subsidiary of the Thalès group. According to Mediapart, Gérard B. was also a consultant for the DGGN – something the gendarmerie denied to the AFP.
Gérard B. was not a “consultant for the DGGN” but a citizen reservist and therefore “volunteer”. “In this context, he was entrusted in July 2018 with a mission aimed at studying the opportunity for the gendarmerie to use military equipment intended for destruction,” specified the same source.
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