One of the three arbitration judges who oversaw the award of more than 400 million euros to controversial tycoon Bernard Tapie has been held for questioning over the affair, according to information received by Mediapart. Pierre Estoup, 86, a former president of the court of appeal at Versailles, was taken to the offices of the fraud squad in rue du Château des Rentiers in Paris on Monday morning.
He may also face questioning by three examining magistrates who are investigating the 2008 arbitration procedure that saw Tapie, a businessman and former politician who was a high-profile supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign, walk away with 403 million euros in compensation from the public purse.
The questioning of the retired judge came as a number of media reports cast doubts on Tapie's claim that he did not know Estoup before the highly-controversial award was made in his favour. A search of one of Estoup's homes on 14th May discovered one of Tapie's own books in which the author had written a dedication to the judge on 10th June 1998, a decade before the award was made. In it Tapie saluted the judge's “courage”, wrote of his “infinite gratitude” and added: “I thank you with all my affection”.
For many observers this dedication is strong evidence that the two men were close well before the arbitration process began. Yet until Tuesday afternoon Tapie had consistently denied knowing the judge. “I never knew him before. I didn't know who he was,” Tapie said of Estoup on Europe 1 radio on 23 May.
When L'Express magazine questioned Tapie about the book dedication, the businessman replied: “I still maintain that I did not know Estoup. It was a lawyer who asked me for this dedication for him, because he had been remarkable in I don't know what affair. I agreed to write it, as I have done so dozens of times...”
However, questioned by BFM TV after news of the two men being held for questioning had broken, Tapie admitted that: “By chance and without following it up I perhaps met Pierre Estoup in the course of my public life.” He insisted, though, that he remains "serene" and pointed out that the decision to award him the money had been made by all three arbitration judges.
The three judges who are investigating the affair - Serge Tournaire, Guillaume Daïeff and Claire Thépaut – will nonetheless want to know why Tapie chose to use expressions such as “infinite gratitude” and “affection”, which are not usually reserved for recipients of dedications who are unknown to the author. In particular they will want to discover whether there was any conflict of interest on the part of Pierre Estoup in relation to the Bernard Tapie case.
Mediapart has also learnt that, in addition to Estoup, Tapie's lawyer Maurice Lantourne has been held for questioning. Investigators are probing suggestions that the retired judge had professional links with the lawyer that he did not declare at the time of the arbitration, which could raise questions over the legality of the arbitration process. Estoup has denied any suggestion of conflict of interest and has stated he has “absolutely nothing” to fear.
During earlier searches at premises belonging to Lantourne fraud squad officers found an exchange of letters between the lawyer and Claude Guéant, who at the time was President Sarkozy's chief of staff at the Elysée. One allegation that has constantly dogged the affair is that the decision made in 2007 to take the long-running legal saga to arbitration – which produced a favourable result for Tapie – came at the behest of the Elysée rather than the finance ministry.
Will the arbitration award be annulled?
Last week the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde, who as French finance minister at the time signed off the decision, escaped being placed under formal investigation over the affair. One reason for this, according to Mediapart's sources, was that under questioning Lagarde accepted that the president’s office was involved in taking decisions on the case. According to a person close to Lagarde, who has been placed under the status of 'assisted witness', she was irritated by a recent public statement given by Guéant in which he insisted that he had played no role in the Tapie affair and that all the decisions were taken by the finance ministry.
Until then Lagarde, 57, who was questioned by judges from France’s Court of Justice of the Republic, the CJR, which is responsible for investigating suspected wrongdoing by ministers, maintained that she had never received instructions regarding her management of the Tapie arbitration procedure, and that her decisions were taken entirely independently. There is no suggestion that Lagarde benefited personally from any decision she made, and she denies any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile Lagarde's chief of staff when she was finance minister Stéphane Richard – who is now boss of France Telecom - is to be questioned as a witness by fraud squad officers on 10th June. Richard was questioned by judges from the CJR back in December 2011.
The progress made by the two parallel investigations – one by the three examining magistrates, the other by the CJR – into the affair could now encourage the finance ministry to take action of its own and seek the formal annulment of the arbitration decision.
The compensation case centred on Tapie's alleged spoliation by the former state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais during its mandated sell-off of his business interests, notably his controlling share of the Adidas sportswear and accessory company, in the early 1990s.
Tapie's claim for damages was brought against the Consortium de Réalisation (CDR), the French government entity responsible for the liabilities of the defunct bank which collapsed following a high-risk lending scandal in 1993. The 403 million euro arbitration award, paid out of public funds, ended a longstanding legal battle that until then had been played out in the courts of law.
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See below for more of Mediapart's investigations and reports on the Christine Lagarde-Bernard Tapie case:
IMF boss Christine Lagarde to appear before French judges
French court to investigate IMF chief Lagarde over 'misappropriation of public funds'
French prosecutor finds evidence that Lagarde 'obstructed law' in Tapie case
Conflict of interest' delays Lagarde probe decision
Exclusive: the secret report that could scupper Lagarde's bid to lead IMF
The sting in the tail of Tapie and the Crédit Lyonnais payout
Two tycoons and a secret pact to calve up millions in compensation
The Chicago gang behind Lagarde's appointment as IMF chief
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English version by Michael Streeter