The sons of one of the best-known prime ministers of France's Fifth Republic, Raymond Barre, have been placed under formal investigation over alleged “laundering the proceeds of tax fraud” as part of a probe launched after the discovery of a secret hoard of money left by their father in Switzerland.
Barre, who was prime minister of France from 1976 to 1981, was regarded by the president at the time, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, as “one of the best economist in France”. He is also indelibly associated with the austerity and budget cuts of that period. Barre, who had also been a Member of Parliament for and mayor of the eastern city of Lyon, died in 2007.
Mediapart has learnt that his two sons, Olivier and Nicolas Barre, were put under investigation – one step short of charges being brought – as part of a full investigation that was launched in April 2016 by France's financial crimes prosecution unit the Parquet National Financier (PNF). Both men deny any wrongdoing.
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Preliminary investigations into the affair had begun two years earlier after an alert from the government department the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP). Last year the investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that back in 2013 an informant had sent the tax authorities a screen grab from an internal network at the Crédit Suisse bank citing the name of Raymond Barre and showing two handwritten notes. One was the number of a bank account and the other was the sum of eleven million francs, which is just over ten million euros at today's exchange rate. This information was subsequently confirmed by investigators, the weekly reported.
The origins of that money remains unknown. However, Le Canard Enchaîné pointed out that when François Mitterrand became president in 1981 some 12 million French francs – 1.83 million euros –were found to have disappeared from the secret fund that was earmarked for bonus payments to staff in ministers' private offices, and which was stored at the Bank of France.
In March 2020 local newspaper Var Matin revealed that the villa that Raymond Barre had bought back in 1979 on the Côte d’Azur had been seized by investigators. The newspaper also said that in 2013 the property had been purchased for 14 million euros by a company called Les Dauphins, based at Villeurbanne next to Lyon.
Company documents show that it is represented by Olivier and Nicolas Barre, both resident in Switzerland, and that it is owned by the Luxembourg-based holding company ONB Invest, which belongs to the former premier's sons. In 2013 ONB Invest authorised an initial loan of more than 7.5 million euros to Les Dauphins to part-finance the purchase of the property. This loan was gradually increased and had reached 11 million euros by December 31st 2019, according to the company's annual accounts which have been seen by Mediapart.
The sons' tax lawyer, Jean-Louis Renaud, told Mediapart that his clients' tax situation had been “resolved” before the opening of the investigation. “The tax authorities then came up with a new theory, even though the case had been resolved,” said the lawyer.
His colleague Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, who represents Olivier Barre, did not want to comment other than pointing to the legal defence her client had put forward against being placed under investigation and the seizure of the villa. Despite several attempts to contact him, Nicolas Barre's lawyer, Jean-Sylvain Thinat, was unavailable for comment.
In his key-note speech as prime minister in 1976, just weeks after taking office, Raymond Barre explained that his government “intended to reconcile the French people with taxation”. The prime minister said that “accordingly” he would show “no weakness towards those who seek to set the French people against tax inspections”.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter