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

  • Why Monaco is on the brink of a regime crisis

    France — Investigation

    Prince Albert II of Monaco is facing the biggest internal crisis this city-state has known for many years, against a backdrop of endemic corruption and a merciless war between rival clans. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report on the claims and counterclaims being made inside this tiny but ultra-wealthy principality.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget

    Free access

  • Families of airliner bomb victims want their voices heard at Sarkzoy-Gaddafi funding trial

    France

    The court case over the alleged Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign is due to begin in January 2025 and is expected to last at least four months. Prosecutors suspect that it was a senior figure in the Libyan regime, Abdullah al-Senussi, who illegally financed the Sarkozy clan. Senussi had been convicted in France over the bombing of a DC10 plane belonging to French airline UTA, in which 170 people lost their lives, including 54 French nationals. The prosecution's case is that in return for the money, Sarkozy's team sought to get an international arrest warrant for Senussi quashed. Lawyers acting for families of victims of that state-sponsored terror attack are now seeking to get them added to next year's trial as civil litigants. Fabrice Arfi reports.

    by Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • Prosecutors rule out French intelligence role in Lafarge payments to terror groups

    Justice — Investigation

    The anti-terrorism branch of the French prosecution services this month recommended that the cement manufacturer Lafarge, and several of its former directors, be sent for trial on charges of “financing terrorism” and the “non-respect of international financial sanctions” over payments made between 2013 and 2014 to several terrorist groups, including Islamic State, to maintain the activities of its cement production plant in Syria. Mediapart has studied the 275-page document issued by the prosecution services, in which it dismisses the claims of several of the accused that France’s secret services and foreign affairs ministry were complicit in the deals made with the terrorist organisations. Fabrice Arfi reports.

    by Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • When Chad president spent close to 1m euros at a Paris tailor's

    France — Investigation

    A referendum on a change of constitution was held in Chad on Sunday, where the ruling junta says the move would lead to a long-promised, and long-postponed, handover of power in the central African former French colony to a civilian government. Opposition groups dismiss it is a ploy to ensure the election as president of Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, the “transitional” leader in power since April 2021. While his regime, accused by international NGOs of mass shootings and torture of opponents, rules over one of the poorest nations worldwide, Mediapart can reveal how he spent close to 1 million euros on clothing from a luxury Paris tailor’s. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget

    Free access

  • Grim week as trio of events reveal growing gap between French democracy and public ethics

    France — Opinion

    On Wednesday France's justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti was cleared of claims of an unlawful conflict of interest by a special court composed largely of politicians. Meanwhile, the country's labour minister Olivier Dussopt is continuing to carry out his official duties while on trial in a criminal court; and on top of that, the former budget minister and convicted tax fraud Jérôme Cahuzac has just announced he is seeking a return to politics.  In what he describes as a bleak week for the country, Mediapart's Fabrice Arfi argues in this op-ed article that the relationship between French democracy and public ethics is crumbling yet further.

    by Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • French weekly Le Canard enchaîné seeks minister’s help in sacking one of its investigative journalists

    France — Analysis

    One of France’s oldest existing French press titles, the satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard enchaîné built a reputation as a fearless, irreverent and anti-establishment journal which has recurrently shaken the country’s political class. But it has now turned to the government to validate the disputed dismissal of one of its investigative journalists, following his revelations of a scandal within the weekly itself. Fabrice Arfi, Yunnes Abzouz and Karl Laske report.

    by Fabrice Arfi, Yunnes Abzouz and Karl Laske

    Free access

  • Why Nicolas Sarkozy faces judicial probe over fake retraction by witness Ziad Takieddine

    France — Investigation

    After a marathon four days of questioning last week, the former president of the Republic was formally placed under investigation for being the “beneficiary of witness tampering” and for “criminal conspiracy”. The investigation in question is into a fake retraction by intermediary Ziad Takieddine, a witness in the scandal concerning alleged Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

    by Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget

    Free access

  • An impossible trial: French justice minister tried in a court where his judges are fellow politicians

    France

    France's justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti is due to stand trial this November over an alleged “unlawful conflict of interest”. He will appear before the Cour de Justice de la République (CJR), France's special court reserved for ministers being tried over acts they carried out as part of their official duties. Mediapart has spoken to judges, legal experts and politicians who are concerned about the nature of a trial in which the country's justice minister will confront prosecutors who are answerable to him in the workplace … and in a courtroom where most of those judging him are politicians. Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan report.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan

    Free access

  • Sarkozy's embarrassing book dedication to man who organised key witness's fake retraction

    France — Investigation

    On June 13th and 14th former president Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned by judges as part of an ongoing investigation into the fake retraction by Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in a parallel probe into Libya's alleged funding of the ex-head of state's 2007 election campaign. Under questioning the former president acknowledged that a key figure in the fake retraction case, Noël Dubus, had visited him to receive signed copies of his book. In one copy of his book Nicolas Sarkozy wrote 'Thanks for everything'. Yet businesswoman and paparazzi agency boss Michèle Marchand, who has been placed under formal investigation in the case, had previously denied that this episode even took place. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

    by Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget

    Free access

  • Jailed French fraudster opens up about his links to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

    France — Investigation

    All-expenses paid trips, luxury watches, oodles of cash and a million dollars: the so-called “crook of the century”, French businessman Arnaud Mimran, has spoken at great length in a prison cell bugged by the judicial authorities about his friend 'Bibi' – the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The convicted fraudster, who is also suspected of involvement in three murders – which he strongly denies - spoke, too, about his relations with French MP Meyer Habib. Fabrice Arfi reports.

    by Fabrice Arfi

    Free access

  • Gaddafi funding affair: Sarkozy and three former ministers to stand trial

    France — Investigation

    After ten years of investigation, judges have decided that there is sufficient evidence to send former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial in the affair concerning the alleged illegal Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. The investigating judges are also sending three of the ex-president's ministers for trial in the same affair: Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth. As Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report, this is an unprecedented situation in French political and legal history.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske

    Free access

  • French armed forces minister was also targeted by Pegasus spyware

    France — Investigation

    France’s former armed forces minister Florence Parly was unknowingly targeted while in office by the secret Pegasus spyware, sold to governments by Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group, bringing the total number of French ministers whose phones were infected with the eavesdropping tool – along with that of President Emmanuel Macron – to seven, Mediapart has learnt. A judicial investigation has established that at least 23 people in France, including journalists as well as politicians, fell victim to the spyware between 2019 and 2020. Fabrice Arfi and Ellen Salvi report.

    by Fabrice Arfi and Ellen Salvi

    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.