Pressure is mounting on Agnès Pannier-Runacher after France’s transparency watchdog opened an investigation into the energy transition minister’s role in a previously unknown inheritance scheme, reports Investigate Europe.
She also faced stinging criticism from political quarters over the revelations on Tuesday, meanwhile, Greenpeace France said the minister was no longer “up to the challenges” of government and called for her to resign.
The company was created in 2016 by her father, a former Perenco oil executive, with €1.2 million of shares invested in three hedge funds – two based in the tax havens of Guernsey and Ireland. Named after the politician’s children, Arjunem was designed by Jean-Michel Runacher as an early-inheritance scheme for his grandchildren.
The three children of Pannier-Runacher, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, are shareholders, along with a fourth grandchild of her father. As their legal representative, the minister is a signatory for her three minor children in Arjunem’s incorporation documents.
Pannier-Runacher, who has denied any wrongdoing, was not obliged to declare her involvement under French law. However, transparency campaigners said her failure to do so could constitute a “conflict of interest” regarding Perenco.