On Wednesday June 26 and Friday June 28, Thales was the subject of searches at the headquarters of different entities of the company in France, the Netherlands and Spain. The information, revealed by BFM-TV on Saturday June 29, was confirmed the same evening by the electronics and defense group. The courts have opened two preliminary investigations into alleged acts of corruption and influence peddling by a foreign public official, but also private corruption, criminal conspiracy and laundering of these offenses.
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Heavy resources were deployed in these cases: sixty-five investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Fiscal Offences, based in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), assisted by twelve magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and with the collaboration of the Dutch and Spanish judicial authorities, as well as Eurojust, the European agency responsible for strengthening judicial cooperation between the Member States of the Union.
Opened at the end of 2016, the first investigation concerns the sale to Brazil of four conventionally powered “Scorpène” class submarines built by Naval Group (at the time the construction department) and equipped by Thales, as well as the construction of a base and a shipyard, opened in 2018 in Itaguai. The contract, worth 5.2 billion euros at the time, dates back to 2008 and a trip by the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Exports of military and civilian equipment
Three of the four submarines were delivered by the Brazilian shipyard. The South American giant is a major customer of the French naval sector. The latter must notably help it in the design of a nuclear-powered submarine, without however transferring the sovereign technology of TechnicAtome’s boiler rooms, nor the capacity to integrate them into the hull owned by Naval Group.
The second investigation, launched in June 2023, concerns suspicions of corruption and influence peddling of foreign public officials, private corruption, criminal conspiracy, money laundering and concealment of these offenses, in the context of exports of military equipment and civilians by the French group specializing in satellites, defense systems and cybersecurity.
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Thales, which employs 81,000 people and generates 18.4 billion euros in turnover in sixty-eight countries, says “cooperate” with the judicial authorities and “comply strictly with national and international regulations”while supporting “meet the highest industry standards”. These are enshrined in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) convention, which entered into force in 2009 and strengthened in 2021.
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