On Friday, a Paris court sentenced the former head of the French domestic secret service to a four -year prison sentence, of which two years are suspended. He was accused of using his security contacts for private purposes – including to obtain confidential information for the LVMH luxury group.
Bernard Squarcini, 69, known as “Le Squale” (the shark), will appeal against the judgment, explained his lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard.
LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man, said as a witness during the trial, but was never charged and denied any knowledge of a possible protective mechanism in favor of the luxury company.
The former head of the DCRI secret service (now DGSI) was also sentenced to a fine of 200,000 euros and with a five-year professional ban on activities in the field of secret service or advice.
The sanctions of the Paris Criminal Court largely corresponded to the public prosecutor’s demands. However, it is expected that Squarcini does not have to be prison – the two -year prison sentence, as is common in France in short punishments, should be served by means of electronic boast.
The allegations relate to the time when Squarcini headed the DCRI between 2008 and 2012, as well as his later return to the private sector, where he worked primarily as a consultant for LVMH. Investigators: DCRI officials assumed from 2008 to identify a blackmailer who has targeted Bernard Arnault, the spying on François Ruffin, a former journalist and today’s top politician-as well as the left newspaper Fakir, which Ruffin had founded.
“I would like to emphasize that I testify here as a witness, as a simple witness, and that an indictment against me was never considered by the judges,” said Arnault in his statement in November. “I had no knowledge” of the alleged approach. “