Diplômé de l'IEP de Grenoble et du Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) de Paris, j'ai démarré ma carrière en 2000 comme journaliste économique, d'abord spécialisé dans les technologies, puis les entreprises. Avant Mediapart, j'ai travaillé pour le magazine Futur(e)s, comme indépendant, à l'agence Reuters, au Journal du Dimanche, puis à Libération, aux services économie puis investigation.
Dans ces médias, j'ai couvert de nombreux secteurs de l'économie française (aéronautique, automobile, santé, industrie, transports...) et enquêté sur des affaires économiques (Airbus, crash du vol Rio Paris d'Air France, Mediator, accident SNCF de Brétigny, fortune belge de Bernard Arnault, affaire Qatar-Veolia...) puis politico-financières (Tapie, Dassault). Je suis le co-auteur du livre Dassault Système (Robert Laffont), avec ma consoeur de France Inter Sara Ghibaudo.
J'ai rejoint Mediapart au services enquêtes en mars 2015. Spécialisé dans les affaires financières, de fraude fiscale et de corruption, je travaille notamment sur les "leaks", ces fuites de données massives qui ont nourri les enquêtes Football Leaks ou Malta Files, publiées par Mediapart avec ses partenaires du réseau European Investigative Collaborations (EIC).
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.
Large artificial reservoirs, built for farmers and filled from underground water sources in winter to irrigate crops during the summer, are bitterly opposed by environmentalists and have been a source of fierce debate and sometimes violent conflict in France. The company behind the most controversial reservoir, at Sainte-Soline in west France, has been hit by recent court rulings. But in any case, as a Mediapart investigation here shows, the entire economic model of these vast 'mega-basin' crop-watering systems is now looking increasingly unviable.
An international investigation called 'Dirty Payments', conducted by Mediapart and 20 other global media outlets, reveals the billions of euros in dubious transactions processed by the French online payments giant Worldline, a group run by the cream of France's elite. The probe shows how for ten years, and with complete impunity, the group handled these fraudulent or unethical payments on behalf of the worst figures in e-commerce: online swindlers, illegal casinos, shady pornography groups and prostitution websites. Following the initial publication of the revelations by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, prosecutors in Belgium announced they were launching an investigation into alleged “money laundering” in relation to Worldline's Belgian operation. In a statement, Worldline said it would cooperate with the authorities in Brussels. Yann Philippin and Clément Rabu report.
Last Friday a Muslim worshipper was stabbed to death at a mosque in the small southern French town of La Grand-Combe. The suspect then fled but has since been arrested in Italy. The brutal killing of the young victim, Aboubakar Cissé, has caused deep grief, anger and political controversy. The government has been accused of being slow to react to the killing while a section of the French Left has attacked the mood of “Islamophobia” in France. In the wake of this stabbing Mediapart spoke to Abdallah Zekri, the rector of the Sud-Nîmes mosque in southern France and vice-president of the Muslim representative body the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM). He criticised the way Muslims in France are stigmatised and said he, too, was shocked by the slow response of the authorities after the young man's murder. He spoke to Mediapart's Yann Philippin.
In the summer of 2022, France's richest man Bernard Arnault was panicking at the prospect of an MP from the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party taking charge of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly. The boss of the LVMH luxury goods group apparently feared that as chair of the influential committee the politician would be able to get access to his tax details. Representatives for the billionaire then requested that his personal tax records be classified as a state secret. But as Fabrice Arfi, Yann Philippin, Antton Rouget and Ellen Salvi report, the authorities balked at this extraordinary request and ultimately rejected it.
After launching an investigation into the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and after subsequently inviting Mediapart and three other outlets to join the project, German public broadcaster NDR finally decided to shelve the report after senior editorial managers came under pressure from the OCCRP. Yann Philippin reports.
The OCCRP, the largest organised network of investigative media in the world, hid the extent of its links with the US government, this investigation can reveal. Washington supplies half of its budget, has a right to veto its senior staff, and funds investigations focussing on Russia and Venezuela. Yann Philippin and Stefan Candea report.
The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, made a two-day state visit to Paris earlier this week. French government documents drawn up to prepare for the trip – seen by Mediapart - show the concessions that the French presidency was prepared to grant in order to curry favour with the head of the gas-rich emirate. The visit also came against the backdrop of the crisis in Gaza in which Qatar is playing a major mediation role. France was rewarded with the announcement that Qatar, which already has substantial interests in the country including the ownership of Paris Saint-Germain football club, will now invest a further ten billion euros here. Yann Philippin and Yunnes Abzouz report.
Though it has not said so officially, the Indian government of prime minister Narendra Modi is refusing to comply with a request for international cooperation made by French judges. The two investigating magistrates want access to key documents as part of their probe into alleged corruption over the sale of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets to India in 2016 for 7.8 billion euros. Yann Philippin investigates.
Mediapart and the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network can reveal that the Greek Member of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, who is under investigation in the 'Qatargate affair', conducted an influence operation on behalf of the Gulf state, working directly with hidden lobbyists and two Qatari ministers. Kaili, who was the vice-president of the European Parliament, denies being guided in her actions by the lobbyists. Louis Colart and Yann Philippin report.
In recent months Siddiq Haftar, the eldest son of Libyan military strongman and suspected war criminal Khalifa Haftar, has been seeking to establish his international credentials as he eyes a possible bid to be his country's president one day. One of his ambitions was to be greeted in style at the European Parliament, and he duly visited the institution in September. But, as Mediapart reveals, the visit, led by a media-friendly imam and a far-right Member of the European Parliament, turned to fiasco. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget report.
The Predator Files investigation has revealed how the French external intelligence agency, the DGSE, cooperated very closely with the surveillance equipment firm Nexa. This is despite the fact that the French group was suspected by French prosecutors of being complicit in torture by exporting its products to dictatorial regimes. Nexa's clients have also included several French ministries and a number of the country's intelligence agencies. Yann Philippin and Matthieu Suc report.
Mediapart is part of an international investigation called 'Predator Files' which has revealed how French group Nexa sold the spy software 'Predator' to three autocratic regimes. The same media investigation shows that, after making direct contact with President Emmanuel Macron, the company used his former bodyguard and personal security adviser Alexandre Benalla to try to sell spyware to Saudi Arabia. This was despite the murder of Saudi regime critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Yet 18 months after these deeply embarrassing facts for the Élysée were unearthed, a judicial investigation has stalled. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget report.
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L'OCCRP, le plus grand réseau mondial de médias d'investigation, a demandé à Mediapart de faire « des corrections » sous 48 heures dans notre enquête sur l'OCCRP et de présenter des « excuses ». Mediapart a refusé, parce que nous maintenons l’intégralité de nos informations. Nous publions les sept points soulevés par l'OCCRP ainsi que nos réponses.
The editor-in-chief of OCCRP, the world's biggest network of investigative media, asked Mediapart to make “corrections and apologies” within 48 hours regarding our investigative article about OCCRP. Mediapart refused this request, fully stands by its reporting, and publishes its full answers to the seven points raised by OCCRP.
Notre partenaire Mediacités, site d’investigation en régions, célèbre son lancement à Lyon avec une série d’enquêtes sur les coulisses financières du football, basée sur les documents Football Leaks.
En annonçant sa volonté de poursuivre Mediapart pour « violation du secret de l’instruction » au sujet de notre article sur ses 102 lingots d’or exfiltrés du Luxembourg, la maire de Puteaux cherche à identifier nos sources en évitant de répondre sur le fond.
