In Depth: The Alexis Kohler affair Investigation

Why Macron's chief of staff is target of corruption probe

The French prosecution services have launched an investigation into suspected corruption by President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler, following an official complaint lodged by anti-corruption NGO Anticor. The complaint cited revelations last month by Mediapart into Kohler’s role, when he was a senior civil servant, in affairs in which the interests of a shipping company owned by members of his close family were at stake. Mediapart’s Martine Orange, who first broke the story, details here the background to the case that now threatens the downfall of the man described by French daily Le Monde as “the most powerful senior civil servant in France”.

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The financial crime branch of the French public prosecutor’s office, the PNF, announced on Monday it had opened an investigation into allegations of corruption by President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler, centred on suspicions of influence peddling and conflicts of interest when he was a senior civil servant at France's economy and finance ministry.

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