The public prosecutor indicated this Friday that the national financial prosecutor's office had requested a trial against Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, and Carlos Ghosn, former boss of the Renault-Nissan group. An international arrest warrant has also targeted the latter since April 2023.
The National Financial Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday requested a trial before the criminal court in particular for corruption and influence peddling against Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture and Carlos Ghosn, former boss of the Renault-Nissan automobile group, indicated the public prosecutor this Friday, November 15 .
A hidden lobbying activity?
Rachida Dati is suspected of having received 900,000 euros from RNBV, a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, without compensation for real work, between 2010 and 2012, while she was a lawyer and European deputy between 2009 and 2019, which could have served to hide lobbying activity in the European Parliament.
The Minister of Culture would have received an annual salary of 300,000 euros for 300 hours of work, or a salary of 1,000 euros per hour for three years. The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) confirmed that it had requested a trial against Rachida Dati for concealment of abuse of power and breach of trust, corruption and passive influence peddling by a person invested with an elective mandate within a international organization.
The minister considers the facts “prescribed”
Rachida Dati considers these accusations to be prescribed facts and has increased her appeals to put an end to the proceedings. “An indictment is only the prosecution's vision of a case. It is not a reflection of reality, a legal deadline now opens during which we will respond point by point to counter this fragmented and inaccurate vision “, his lawyers explained.
In this case, Carlos Ghosn has been targeted since April 2023 by an international arrest warrant. The businessman fled to Lebanon after an arrest in Japan in 2018 where he was to be tried for financial embezzlement and an incredible escape from the country.
It will be up to the investigating judges in charge of the case to make the final decision on whether to hold a possible trial, the PNF specifying that an appeal remains possible before the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal.
