Senior French civil servant faces probe over luxury goods firm LVMH 'spying' affair

AA senior civil servant working at France's Ministry of the Interior has been formally placed under investigation in connection with allegations of “spying” by leading luxury goods firm LVMH, Mediapart understands.

Pierre Lieutaud, who used to work at the Élysée and has a background in the French intelligence services, was put under investigation in the case by examining magistrate Aude Buresi on November 18th 2021 for “involvement in breaching confidentiality” and for “receiving” the results of that alleged offence. The move follows a series of revelations by Mediapart in July 2020 – since confirmed by the judicial investigation – about secret operations involving LVMH and former French spy chief Bernard Squarcini.

It is claimed that while at the Élysée Pierre Lieutaud worked to obtain and pass on confidential information benefiting the LVMH group. This was allegedly done via Bernard Squarcini, the former head of France's domestic intelligence agency who in 2013 began a new career as a private security consultant. In particular Squarcini worked for LVMH, whose chair and chief executive is Europe's richest man, Bernard Arnault.

Pierre Lieutaud worked at France's overseas intelligence agency, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), for 15 years, in particular in its 'Service Action' section which plans and carries out covert operations. Indeed, he has spent much of his long career in the world of information gathering, working in police intelligence and later as national intelligence coordinator at the Élysée.

Until the spring of 2021 he was the director of security for the 2024 Paris Olympics, a post he left to take up a senior position in the general secretariat at the Ministry of the Interior.

Lieutaud, who when questioned by the investigating judge denied any wrongdoing, benefits from the presumption of innocence.

It was a series of police phone-taps carried out in 2013 that ultimately led to the emergence of the facts over which the senior civil servant is being investigated. They showed the way the civil servant had apparently schemed in relation to two ongoing issues that were important to LVMH. One involved a judicial investigation into LVMH's discreet move to buy a stake in rival firm Hermès, the other was the filming of the Merci Patron! documentary about Bernard Arnault. This was made by journalist Francois Ruffin, who is now a Member of Parliament for the radical left La France Insoumise party.

Lieutaud's lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard told Mediapart: “The placing of prefect Lieutaud under investigation, [a move] which is already the subject of an application to declare it null and void, is based on complete ignorance on the part of the investigating judge of intelligence activity, of which economic intelligence constitutes an essential part,” she said. “Having served the state, and the state alone, for nearly 42 years, the criticism to which he is subject today is of course unconscionable, but above all it is worrying for the functioning and even the very nature of the intelligence services!”

Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard said she was astonished by the questions from Mediapart which, she suggested, ironically resulted from a “breach of the confidentiality of an investigation about the probe into Pierre Lieutaud, a probe which is based on exactly those same grounds”.

When questioned by the investigating judge, Lieutaud put the embarrassing contents of the phone conversations with Bernard Squarcini about Hermès and the spying on François Ruffin down to “shop floor …. gossip”, to “jokes” or everyday economic intelligence work on behalf of the state.

The judge Aude Buresi noted, however, that this “gossip” was not without its perks; the investigation has established that in December 2012 the prefect personally received six bottles of Château d’Yquem, LVMH's finest vintage wine, from Bernard Arnault's right-hand man.

“Did you not see a problem there, at the very least ethically in view of the public role that you perform?” asked the judge. Pierre Lieutaud, replied: “I don't have a detailed recollection but it's likely because during the Christmas period we used to receive lots of parcels from companies. I have no memory of this parcel. Of wine, of chocolate, of what I call festive produce.” The prefect continued: “I have always considered that: one, they were first and foremost collective presents. Two, that one shared them inside the organisation, whether it was at the Élysée or before. That was how I always worked.”

Pierre Lieutaud is the highest public servant caught up in the Squarcini/LVMH case after the former chief of Paris detectives Christian Flaesch, who is now director of security for the hotel group Accor. Flaesch, who was suspected of having informed Bernard Squarcini on LVMH's behalf about the Hermès investigation being carried out by a police unit under his control, ended up admitting the facts and accepted a plea agreement. However, in mid-January a Paris court refused to approve the plea agreement he had reached with prosecutors in the French capital, as Mediapart has already reported.

A month earlier, on the final occasion on which he was questioned by the judge, Christian Flaesch had made a public apology: “I'm sorry, I'm not sure I entered the police for it to end in this way.”

Meanwhile the LVMH group, which faced a summons in May 2021 to appear before the judge and which was itself set to be formally placed under investigation, managed to extricate itself from the case by signing what is known as a Public Interest Judicial Agreement ('Convention Judiciaire d’Intérêt Public' in French) with the prosecution. Such deals were introduced into French law in late 2016. This agreement allowed the luxury goods multinational to avoid a trial by admitting to the facts and paying a fine of ten million euros, much to the annoyance of journalist and MP François Ruffin, the victim of the spying that LVMH had ordered.

In all, eleven people have been formally placed under investigation in this case, including Bernard Squarcini. At the end of December 2021 Judge Buresi sent all parties involved a document indicating that she had completed her investigations. This document allows the lawyers of those under investigation to make their final comments. After that prosecutors will make their recommendations as to what should happen and then the judge will close the case and decide whether or not there should be a trial in a case which has glaringly exposed the coming together of powerful private interests with public authorities to carry out grubby police operations.

-------------------------

If you have information of public interest you would like to pass on to Mediapart for investigation you can contact us at this email address: enquete@mediapart.fr. If you wish to send us documents for our scrutiny via our highly secure platform please go to https://www.frenchleaks.fr/ which is presented in both English and French.

 -------------------------

• The French original of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter