French police questioned billionaire Vincent Bolloré on Tuesday over allegations his Groupe Bolloré worked on the election campaigns of presidential candidates in two African countries in return for lucrative port contracts. reports Reuters.
Shares in holding company Groupe Bolloré SA fell as much as 8 percent on the news of his interrogation, while shares in Vivendi, in which the company holds a 20.5 percent stake, also fell around 1 percent.
Bolloré, whose sprawling logistics empire is a corporate powerhouse in former French colonies across West Africa, is suspected of corrupting foreign public officials and complicity in corruption, his lawyer said. He denied any wrongdoing by Bolloré.
“He’s indeed being questioned as we speak,” Olivier Baratelli said.
Groupe Bolloré confirmed in a statement its African business interests were under investigation and said the probe related to the billing for work carried out in Guinea and Togo between 2009 and 2010 by its communications business Havas Worldwide.
It added it would cooperate with the investigation and denied any wrongdoing.
The questioning of Bolloré is a sign French authorities are stepping up their years-long investigation, and are prepared to take on one of France’s wealthiest individuals who built a reputation as a corporate raider.
Bolloré has a net worth of $7.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Weekly business magazine Challenges reported two weeks ago that Bolloré had been summoned by judges investigating whether Havas was involved in influencing elections in West Africa.
The probe involves two separate cases, one in Guinea and the other in Togo. The French judges are examining whether Havas supported the electoral campaigns of candidates who once in office granted port concessions to Bolloré’s group, the magazine said.
“The link that some are trying to make between the winning of these concessions and the communication operations has no business logic and reveals a total lack of understanding of this industrial sector,” Groupe Bolloré said.
A spokesman for the Guinea government, Damantang Albert Camara, told Reuters by telephone “the port concession obtained by Bolloré in Guinea was in strict compliance with the laws in force.”
Togo communications minister Guy Lorenzo told Reuters by telephone that “we have no comment on the subject.”