look back at the fortune of the former leader of the FN

© ALAIN JOCARD/AFP

– Jean-Marie Le Pen died at the age of 96 on January 7, 2025.

At the age of 96, the man who called himself “Menhir” died. «Jean-Marie Le Pensurrounded by his family, was called back to God this Tuesday at noon”declared his family in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse on January 7. The patriarch of the far right, whose excesses allowed him to interfere with resounding in the political landscape has been since February 2024 under a future protection mandatelegal protection close to guardianship. After a heart attack in 2023, his three daughters, Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine, were appointed to manage the day-to-day affairs of the former boss of the National Front (FN).

Born on June 20, 1928, in La Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan), the Breton became a ward of the Nation at the age of 14 when his father, a fisherman, died at sea by jumping on a mine. The one who was then called simply “Jean” – he would only add “Marie” later – began studying law. Once graduated, in 1954 he joined the first foreign paratrooper battalion in Indochina. Back in Paris, in 1956, at the age of 27, he became the youngest member of the National Assembly on the Poujadist lists, in a declining Fourth Republic. He then leaves again, this time to Algeria, where he is accused of torture, accusations which he firmly denies.

Le Pen, a politician at the head of a controversial record publishing house

A visceral anti-communist, Jean-Marie Le Pen led the presidential campaign of far-right lawyer Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour in 1965, then was appointed in 1972 to head a new party: the Front national. He ran in the 1974 presidential election at the head of an indebted National Front. He obtained only 0.74% of the votes.

During this period, the Breton ran his record publishing company, SERP, launched in 1963. He produced varied recordings, ranging from Red Army choirs and Israeli songs to speeches by leaders such as Adolf Hitler or Lenin. But also recordings of the trials of Raoul Salan and Bastien-Thiry, two figures of the OAS, or even songs of the German army and in particular a disc entitled Men and facts of the twentieth century. The Third Reich. Voices and songs of the German revolution. For this record, Jean-Marie Le Pen was convicted of advocating war crimes in 1971. Later, his eldest daughter was appointed to manage the company.

Ward of the State who became a millionaire after an inheritance in 1976

In 1976, the life of Jean-Marie Le Pen took a turning point. The son of a fisherman becomes a millionaire after inheriting the fortune of Hubert Lambert, head of the eponymous cement works and nationalist activist. The amount is estimated at 30 million francs. He also bequeathed him half of the SCI owning the mansion in Parc de Montretout, in Saint Cloud. The cousin of the rich businessman, Philippe Lambert, who lived in Montretout at the time, contested the will. The two families eventually reached an amicable agreement. Later, Jean-Maurice Demarquet, a former close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen, accused him of having taken advantage of Hubert Lambert, an alcoholic who died at the age of 42 without children. He was convicted of defamation in 1988.

During his political career, Jean-Marie Le Pen was regularly accused of having taken advantage of the system for his personal enrichment. His bodyguard, Thierry Légier, was elected regional councilor in Upper Normandy in 2010. In The Devil’s Testament (Editions du Moment, 2010), journalist Azzedine Ahmed-Chaouch stated that Jean-Marie Le Pen “knows how to be clever in reducing the payroll of his staff”. The bodyguard was subsequently accused of having benefited from a fictitious job by becoming a parliamentary assistant between 2005 and 2009, while he was still providing security for the president of the FN. Same question for Gérald Gérin, butler, personal makeup artist and close collaborator of Jean-Marie Le Pen who was employed as a parliamentary assistant between December 2014 and December 2015 for a total of 87,000 euros with MEP Marie-Christine Arnautu. His role was also questioned during the trial of the RN assistants in the European Parliament.

Jean-Marie Le Pen and the legal problems

The butler is also suspected of having concealed from the tax authorities, between 2008 and 2015, a trust based in the British Virgin Islands credited with 2.2 million euros, including 1.7 million in the form of gold bars and coins and of which he was the beneficiary. The existence of the trust named Balerton Marketing LTP was revealed in 2015 by Mediapart. At the beginning of December 2024, the prosecution requested a suspended prison sentence of 18 months against Le Pen’s former personal assistant. Tracfin, the Bercy anti-money laundering unit, and the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) had reported to the courts the possible existence of a bank account hidden abroad and belonging to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front (FN) which became the National Rally (RN). The cases of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his wife Jany, cited in this affair, had been separated and entrusted to the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office.

At the end of the 1990s, after the party’s number two, Bruno Mégret, attempted a “pu-putsch”, as Le Pen called it, to take the side, the family divided. The leader of the FN denies the political heritage promised to his eldest daughter, Marie-Caroline, after joining Bruno Mégret. Le Breton attacks her to recover funds invested in her record publishing house, which she now manages. Her daughter then decided to sell one of two family homes in La Trinité-sur-Mer.

It is difficult to precisely assess the assets of the Le Pen family. In 2017, while Marine Le Pen is now at the head of the flame party, the party president is caught by the tax authorities. The first tax adjustment procedure concerns the Montretout residence, the property of which was at the time shared between the father, Marine and Yann, the second in the family, reports The World. The tax authorities accused the clan of having underestimated the value of their shares in the Montretout SCI. The second procedure concerned the family home in Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) whose value was contested. Both residences have since been sold.