Fabrice Arfi

Co-responsable des enquêtes à Mediapart avec Michaël Hajdenberg.

#Presse Ancien reporter à Lyon Figaro (1999-2004), à 20 Minutes (2004-2005), co-fondateur de l'hebdomadaire Tribune de Lyon (2005-2007), j'ai également collaboré à l'AFP, au Monde, à Libération, au Parisien/Aujourd'hui en France, au Canard enchaîné...

#Livres Je suis l'auteur (ou co-auteur) de plusieurs ouvrages : La Troisième Vie (Seuil), Pas tirés d'affaires (Seuil), D'argent et de sang (Seuil), Avec les compliments du Guide (avec Karl Laske, chez Fayard), Le Sens des Affaires (Calmann-Lévy), Le Contrat (avec Fabrice Lhomme, chez Stock), L'Affaire Bettencourt, un scandale d'Etat (avec Fabrice Lhomme et la rédaction de Mediapart, chez Don Quichotte), L'Affaire Cahuzac, en bloc et en détail (avec la rédaction de Mediapart, chez Don Quichotte), La République sur écoute (avec la rédaction de Mediapart, chez Don Quichotte). J'ai également co-dirigé avec Paul Moreira l'ouvrage collectif Informer n'est pas un délit (Calmann-Lévy).

#Bande dessinée Je suis le co-auteur avec Benoît Collombat, Michel Despratx, Elodie Guéguen et Geoffrey Le Guilcher de la BD Sarkozy-Kadhafi, des billets et des bombes (La Revue dessinée/Delcourt), dessinée par Thierry Chavant.

#Film Je suis le co-auteur avec Jean-Christophe Klotz d'un documentaire sur l'affaire Karachi, L'argent, le sang et la démocratie, qui a reçu en 2014 le Grand Prix et le Prix du Public du Festival international du Grand Reportage d'Actualité (FIGRA). Co-auteur de la série D’argent et de Sang, adaptée du livre éponyme et réalisée par Xavier Giannoli. Co-auteur du documentaire de cinéma Personne n’y comprend rien, sur l’affaire Sarkozy-Kadhafi. 

Declaration of interest

In the interest of transparency towards its readers, Mediapart’s journalists fill out and make public since 2018 a declaration of interests on the model of the one filled out by members of parliament and senior civil servants with the High Authority for Transparency and Public Life (HATVP), a body created in 2014 after Mediapart’s revelations on the Cahuzac affair.

Consult my declaration of interests

All his articles

  • Spy boss reveals secret Elysée mission over Karachi sting

    International — Investigation

    Since the Karachi affair became public, with revelations that secret cash kickbacks from an arms deal may be linked to the murders of 11 French naval engineers, the Elysée Palace has been adamant that it "in no way concerns" President Nicolas Sarkozy (left). However, that line will become harder to maintain following evidence given to an examining magistrate by Alain Juillet, former number two of the French intelligence agency, the DGSE, and revealed here by Mediapart.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Balladur's second stash of cash

    France — Investigation

    Already at the centre of the Karachi affair over suspected illegal electoral funding from arms sale kickbacks, former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur is now facing more questions over large and mysterious cash sums belonging to a political organization under his control. This time it concerns a stash of almost 100,000 euros found lying in a Paris safe, officially destined to pay for weekly breakfast meetings, and which was the object of a rapidly-shelved investigation in 2007.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Senior French defence chief told of former PM's 'kickback scam'

    International — Investigation

    A former controller-general of the French armed forces told a parliamentary mission he was informed that former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur financed his presidential election campaign with illegal kick-backs on the sale of submarines to Pakistan, Mediapart can reveal. The disclosure of Jean-Louis Porchier's testimony raises further questions about the role played by Balladur's then-budget minister and campaign spokesman, Nicolas Sarkozy (left on photo).

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • L'Oréal scandal: it's far from over yet

    France

    The announcement Monday of a reconciliation between L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and her daughter Françoise has apparently put an end to the public side of an ugly family dispute. But the political implications of the scandal continue, with ongoing investigations into the alleged illegal funding of President Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign, and into suspected influence peddling by his former budget and labour minister Eric Woerth. If only, that is, the newly-appointed magistrates could get their hands on the case files.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Karachi witness reveals 'kickback blackmail' attempt

    International — Investigation

    A key witness in the investigation into suspected illegal political funding in France from bribes allocated for the sale of French submarines to Pakistan has given testimony of a blackmail attempt against senior government figures, including Nicolas Sarkozy, in the months before the 2007 presidential elections and centred on allegedly compromising information about the kickbacks. We reveal here what he told a French judge.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Karachi bomb blast: the astonishing revelations of a French defence minister

    France

    Revelations from former French defence minister Charles Millon, testifying before an investigating magistrate, have led to calls that President Nicolas Sarkozy be questioned over arms deal kickbacks allegedly behind a bomb attack in which 11 French naval engineers were murdered in Pakistan.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Bettencourt chauffeur adds to Sarkozy campaign fund allegations

    France — Investigation

    In an exclusive interview with Mediapart, a former chauffeur to L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and her late husband André has added to allegations of secret financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election campaign.

    by Fabrice Lhomme and Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • Tibhirine monk murders and 'bitter' reports of a super-spy

    France — Investigation

    In March 1996, seven French Cisterian Trappist monks were kidnapped from their monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria. Their heads were found two months later, on a nearby roadside, some hanging from trees in plastic bags. Their murders remain a mystery, despite initial official claims that Islamic extremists were responsible. An ongoing French judicial investigation is exploring the theory that they were mistakenly murdered by the Algerian army, and their bodies mutilated in an appalling cover-up. In this second report on the mystery, we reveal extracts from three secret French intelligence reports prepared by General Philippe Rondot, the 'super-spy' assigned to the case.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Karachi blast probe rapporteur demands truth from Constitutional Council

    France — Interview

    Bernard Cazeneuve, rapporteur for the French parliament's mission of enquiry into the deaths in a bomb blast in Karachi in 2002 of 11 French naval engineers, tells Mediapart of his outrage at the 'obstruction'of the judicial investigation into the murders, and says the Constitutional Council "owes it to the victims" to reveal the truth about Edouard Balladur's presidential election campaign funds.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • Dinners, cash and Sarkozy: what Bettencourt's accountant told Mediapart

    France

    Claire Thibout is a former accountant to L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and Clymène, the company that manages the billionaire's wealth. Her exclusive interview with Mediapart this summer, reproduced here in English, had the effect of a political bombshell in France. Thibout notably alleged that numerous French politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy, pocketed gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes during their visits to the Bettencourt home.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

  • A scandal too far: Bettencourt magistrate is disowned

    France

    The revelations emerging from the so-called Bettencourt 'affair' include massive tax fraud, illegal party funding, ministerial conflicts of interest and influence peddling. But this week, despite the gravity of the case, its judicial outcome has been thrown into doubt by moves from a high-ranking prosecutor to remove an independent magistrate from continuing her investigation. In an exclusive interview with Mediapart, lawyer Antoine Gillot, representing the former Bettencourt accountant at the heart of allegations over illegal political funding implicating French President Nicolas Sarkozy (see article below left), denounces a "sad judicial farce" and a "scandalous" political manoeuvre.

    by Fabrice Lhomme and Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • Who murdered the beheaded French monks of Tibhirine?

    France

    In May 1996 the heads of seven French Trappist monks, kidnapped from their monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria, were found by a roadside. Their murders remain a mystery, despite official claims that Islamic extremists were responsible. The tragedy is the subject of the French film 'Des hommes et des dieux', a huge box-office hit. An ongoing French judicial investigation is exploring the theory that they were mistakenly murdered in an Algerian army raid. In the first of a two-part report, we return to the moment when Mediapart first revealed the astonishing evidence suggesting a cover-up by both the Algerian and French authorities.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Fabrice Lhomme

    Free access

All his blog posts

Mediapart’s journalists also use their blogs, and participate in their own name to this space of debates, by confiding behind the scenes of investigations or reports, doubts or personal reactions to the news.

Fabrice Arfi (avatar)

Fabrice Arfi

Mediapart Journalist

32 Posts

0 Editions

  • Affaire Sarkozy-Kadhafi : la manipulation du « Point »

    Blog post

    Mediapart a recensé 20 erreurs et omissions dans un article de l’hebdomadaire, qui met en cause, ce 2 octobre, notre enquête dans l’affaire des financements libyens. Revue de détails.

  • Coronavirus: face à la crise sanitaire, la nécessité de la transparence

    Blog post

    Parce qu'il ne peut y avoir de confinement pour l’information d’intérêt général, Mediapart a décidé de créer une adresse mail spécifique — covid@mediapart.fr — afin de recueillir toutes les informations qualifiées, y compris documentaires (notes, rapports, échanges, circulaires, etc…), capables d’éclairer le débat public.

  • Les Rugy n’ont toujours pas digéré

    Blog post

    Séverine Servat de Rugy, l’épouse de l’ancien numéro 2 du gouvernement qui avait dû démissionner suite aux révélations de Mediapart sur l’appétit du couple pour le mélange des genres avec l’argent public, publie un livre-témoignage, « La Marche du crabe ». Mediapart l’a lu.

  • La manipulation

    Blog post

    J’ai fait l’objet d’une manipulation de la DGSI. Discrète, habile, subtile. Je ne parle pas d’une surveillance téléphonique illégale, d’un cambriolage nocturne ou d’une filature avec le col de l’imperméable relevé, non, je parle d’une petite manip' de papier. Explications.

  • «D’argent et de sang»: un livre et un chat sur Mediapart le 10 septembre, de 11h à midi

    Blog post

    Après les enquêtes de Mediapart entamées à l’automne 2015 sur “la mafia du CO2”, j’ai voulu consacrer à cette histoire devenue pour moi une obsession un livre, «D’argent et de sang», publié aujourd'hui aux éditions du Seuil.