In 2009 the former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was paid nearly half a million euros in money which originated in a Libyan state fund, Mediapart can reveal. Details of the payment, which came via middleman and business Alexandre Djouhri, have been unearthed by investigators examining another 500,000 euro payment, which was made to Nicolas Sarkozy's former right-hand man Claude Guéánt and which passed through a similar route. Villepin has told detectives he was unaware of the Libyan origin of the money. Karl Laske and Fabrice Arfi report.
Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin is facing questions after investigators discovered that nearly half a million euros were paid into his bank account from money that originated in a Libyan state fund. Mediapart can reveal that a payment of 489,143 euros was transferred to Villepin by middleman Alexandre Djouhri in 2009, with the money originally coming from the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP), one of the main investment arms of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.
