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.
Mediapart and its partners in the journalistic consortium European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) can reveal here how a private Swiss firm sent to the intelligence services of the United Arab Emirates the names of more than 1,000 European individuals and organisations who it described, often wrongly, as being close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Among the more than 200 French victims who feature on the absurd lists figure former minister and Socialist Party presidential election candidate Benoît Hamon and the former senator and now deputy mayor of Marseille, Samia Ghali. Also listed, as organisations, are France’s prestigious National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the political party La France Insoumise. Clément Fayol, Yann Philippin, Antton Rouget and Antoine Harari report.
Rui Pinto, the whistleblower behind the “Football Leaks” revelations of corruption and fraud within the business side of football, has been given a four-year suspended prison sentence by a court in Portugal after he was found guilty of computer hacking charges and attempted extortion. Despite a heavier sentence demanded by prosecutors, Pinto, 34, escaped returning to prison after the court in Lisbon recognised the “public interest” of the information he gained through the hacking, and took into account the regrets he expressed during the three-year trial. Yann Philippin reports.
France’s 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets, the subject of an ongoing French judicial investigation, is mired by suspected corruption involving politicians and industrialists. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who signed the deal, prepares to attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations as guest of honour, documents obtained by Mediapart reveal how Modi’s billionaire friend, Anil Ambani, boss of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, which was handed a lucrative contract as a condition of the Rafale sale, directly solicited the intervention of then economy minister Emmanuel Macron and finance minister Michel Sapin in a bid to escape a 151-million-euro tax claim against his French subsidiary. The tax adjustment was finally cut down to 6.6 million euros. Yann Philippin reports.
Mediapart can reveal that close family members of Russians sanctioned after the invasion of Ukraine are continuing to use their luxury properties in France, which have escaped from being frozen by the French Treasury as assets. Among those benefiting include family members of Vladimir Putin's veteran spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and several oligarchs. The revelations emerge from a joint investigation carried out with the German NGO Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CIFAR) and media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC). Sébastien Bourdon, Yann Philippin and Alexandre Brutelle (CIFAR) report.
Former French police officer Sihem Souid, who now lobbies on behalf of Qatar, has made a formal legal complaint to the prosecution authorities in Paris after revelations by Mediapart and 'The New Yorker' magazine over alleged intelligence-gathering operations and attempts to gain influence in France carried out on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. As Mediapart has revealed, these operations were carried out for Qatar's regional rivals the UAE by a private Swiss agency called Alp Services. The legal complaint made by the lobbyist centres on photographs which suggest that her family home may have been the target of surveillance. Yann Philippin reports.
The Paris public prosecution services are investigating two formal complaints, the latest filed on March 23rd, alleging that Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of the Paris Saint-Germain football club and also chairman of Qatari broadcaster BeIN Sports, illegally employed in France his former major-domo and an advisor by paying them through fake contracts as coaches with his Smash Tennis Academy in Doha. Khelaifi, one of the most powerful figures in world football, denies the accusations. Yann Philippin reports.
With the help of leaked documents and witness accounts, Mediapart reveals the inside story on the United Arab Emirates' strategy to influence opinion in France, an operation involving private intelligence gathering and the manipulation of information . The story features an Emirati intelligence agent, a private intelligence agency in Switzerland, academics and two well-known French journalists. Another name that also crops up is that of President Emmanuel Macron's former bodyguard Alexandre Benalla. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget investigate.
France's anti-corruption watchdog wrote a damning report after a lengthy inspection of French defence and aviation company Dassault. The report from the Agence Française Anticorruption highlighted five breaches of the law and signs of possible corruption in the firm's dealings in India, where it sold 36 Rafale fighter jets for 7.8 billion euros. Yet as Yann Philippin reports, the agency did not propose any punishment and nor did it alert French prosecutors to its findings.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy received 300,000 euros during a period in which he attended a 2018 gathering in Moscow that was organised by the Russian state's main sovereign wealth fund, and at which he praised his “friend” Vladimir Putin. The money was paid by a company which bears the same name as a subsidiary of that sovereign fund. Fabrice Arfi and Yann Philippin report.
It is the latest development in a complex affair involving the French football club Paris Saint-Germain, the state of Qatar, a lobbyist, a former French intelligence agent and accusations of illicit espionage. The lobbyist in question, Franco-Algerian businessman Tayeb Benabderrahmane, was arrested and detained for several months in Doha in 2020 after having obtained confidential information belonging to the PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi. Tayeb Benabderrahmane was later able to leave Qatar after reportedly signing a secret agreement and handing over all the information he possessed. However, according to a document seen by Mediapart, the lobbyist had kept hold of some of the confidential information on the PSG boss and wanted to ask for 100 million euros from the emirate, who own PSG, in return for his silence. Tayeb Benabderrahmane, who faces separate allegations involving private and illicit investigations on behalf of the football club, denies all the claims. Yann Philippin reports.
An external agency paid by the Qatari-owned Paris club created an “army” of fake Twitter accounts which then carried out aggressive and foul-mouthed online smear campaigns, in particular against the media and some of the Paris football club's own leading figures. Mediapart and the sports newspaper L’Équipe were among the main targets. This “digital army” even had a go at PSG's French star Kylian Mbappé. Clément Fayol and Yann Philippin report.
French judges are leading an investigation into claims of corruption surrounding the 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter aircraft. But four months after searching the headquarters of the French defence and aviation group, investigators were refused access by France's Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to classified documents concerning the contract negotiations. Yann Philippin reports.
All his blog posts
The Mediapart Club
Join the discussion
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.
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.
