Thierry Gaubert, a longstanding friend and aide of President Nicolas Sarkozy, was in September placed under formal investigation - one step short of being charged - for "aiding and abetting the misuse of company assets" over his role in a suspected political funding scam connected to French weapons sales abroad. In this exclusive report, Mediapart reveals how Gaubert built himself a luxurious, sprawling property in Colombia, using funds hidden abroad, where his guest book resembles a list from Who's Who in France. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report from Nilo, Colombia.
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Thierry Gaubert, a longstanding friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy, was in September placed under formal investigation - one step short of being charged - for "aiding and abetting the misuse of company assets" over his role in a suspected political funding scam connected to French weapons sales abroad.
Gaubert, 60, notably served as communications director for Sarkozy when the latter was mayor of the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, and later as an advisor to Sarkozy when he was budget minister in the government of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.
Also placed under investigation for embezzlement in September was Nicolas Bazire, 54, Managing Director of French luxury goods group LVMH, who was Sarkozy's best man for his marriage to Carla Bruni in 2008, and who is another longtime friend and aide to the French President.
The suspected political funding scam is connected to French sales of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia in 1994, but the implications of the evidence emerging from the independent investigation led by Paris-based magistrate Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke goes further.
For also placed under official investigation this autumn for "aiding and abetting the misuse of company assets" and "receiving" the proceeds was Franco-Lebanese arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, a key intermediary in both deals and who, as Mediapart has revealed, continued to play a central role in numerous weapons sales mounted by Nicolas Sarkozy's senior aides during the past decade (see links to Mediapart's investigations on page four).
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Judge Van Ruymbeke is studying evidence that some of the money paid in bribes, or commissions, in the arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia secretly returned to France, in a system known as retro-commissions, to fund the political activities of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.
Material and verbal evidence suggests that retro-commissions helped fund Balladur's failed 1995 presidential election campaign. Bazire, 54, was Prime Minister Balladur's principal private secretary and became his presidential campaign director. Nicolas Sarkozy, Balladur's budget minister from 1993 to 1995, was his campaign spokesman.
Mediapart has previously detailed the immense fortune acquired by Ziad Takieddine, estimated to total 100 million euros worldwide, and how he curiously paid no income or wealth tax in France where he is domiciled (see links to Mediapart's investigations on page four).
In this exclusive report, Mediapart can reveal how Thierry Gaubert, close to Takieddine, used secret funds hidden abroad from the French tax authorities to build himself, beginning in 2001, a magnificent property in Columbia. The exact origins of the funds are the subject of further investigations by Judge Van Ruymbeke.
The sprawling property, complete with an artificial lake, is situated in the Colombian cordillera beside the village of Nilo, 150 kilometres from the capital Bogota. The mansion, a monastery-like design, is called Cactus.
Its existence was first discovered by French police on July 5th this year, during a search of Gaubert's Paris office at the Banques populaires-Caisses d'épargne (BPCE) banking group. It figured in documents, photos and emails seized during the raid by officers working under the instructions of Van Ruymbeke.
The documents, titled ‘Nilo/Cactus' were found in a small briefcase. "I got hold of these documents in the framework of my divorce proceedings," Gaubert told police in a statement seen by Mediapart. "These documents don't concern me. I do not know the significance of the term ‘Nilo/Cactus'", he at first claimed, similarly denying any knowledge of Cactus when the officers presented him with seized photos of the property.
The property lies in a domain protected night and day by a guard who, from a cabin, watches over the entrance and who politely but firmly turned Mediapart's reporters away. "No-one can get past," he told Mediapart. "Since the affair, we've had orders."
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On the same domain, another of Gaubert's circle, Jean-Philippe Couzi, an acquaintance of Nicolas Bazire, has built an even bigger property, called Palmera, a colonnaded mansion surrounded by palm trees.
Couzi bought the land with his now divorced wife, Astrid Betancourt - sister of Ingrid Betancourt, the Franco-Colombian politician who was held hostage for six years by the FARC guerillas - and has since made it his principal home.
An employee with the local post office in Nilo told Mediapart that Couzi received, since Nicolas Sarkozy's election as president in 2007, letters stamped with the hallmark of the French presidency. Couzi has allegedly claimed to be a personal acquaintance of President Sarkozy.
Meanwhile, Gaubert's property has hosted a series of VIP guests, including Olivier Dassault, a Member of Parliament and son of Serge Dassault, CEO of the French aviation group, and Alexandre de Juniac, recently appointed CEO of Air France who, like Gaubert, served among Nicolas Sarkozy's staff when the latter was budget minister under Edouard Balladur.
Another visitor to the luxurious home was arms deal Ziad Takieddine who, Mediapart can reveal, also provided 100,000 dollars to a bank account set up to pay for the upkeep of the property.
Reaching Nilo from Bogota involves a four-hour trip by car. At the end of the journey, after passing a road lined with modest homes of huts with corrugated steel roofs, one reaches a valley containing some of the most expensive properties in Columbia, and which enjoy tight security.
"Behind this mountain, you have Tolemaida, the most important military base in Latin America," explained local resident, Jaïme Luis Vargas, a wealthy ophthalmologist and a friend of Gaubert's. "Special forces from all over the world come to train here. And with the Nilo Espro school [escuela de formacion de soldados profesionales], we have three other military bases in the surrounding area. That's why the most powerful men in Columbia have bought and built residences here."
Just a few hundred metres from the Cactus and Palmera mansions, in a neighbouring condominium called El Lago, with a lake for water skiing, property owners include former Colombian president Andres Pastrana, members of the family of the country's current president, Juan Manuel Santos, former Colombian army chief, General Jorge Enrique Mora, and former head of police, Teodoro Ocampo. All of them are acquaintances of Gaubert and Couzi.
While neither Cactus nor Palmera can be seen from the entrance to the domain, a guide showed us to a spot, reached through countryside, offering a view of the properties.
Mediapart has gained access to transcripts of a phone conversation on July 5th this year between Gaubert's daughter Nastasia and her mother, Gaubert's estranged wife Princess Hélène of Yugoslavia. The conversation was secretly recorded by police acting on orders of Judge Van Ruymbeke, and was held just hours after the police raid earlier that day on Gaubert's Paris offices when the existence of Cactus was discovered.
"They've found out that we have a house in Colombia", Nastasia told her mother, who answered "Nooo!", and who then cracked a joke that made both of them laugh: "Well, he just has to say that it's Ziad [Takieddine] who offered it to him."
Gaubert uses the name Cactus as the password on his computer, his I-Pad and for an email account. It is also the codename of a bank account he opened in the Bahamas, in the name of his now estranged wife Hélène. Gaubert told police that this was opened on the advice of the Picte bank in Geneva, with whom he has an account containing secret funds. Questioned on September 21st, Gaubert gave a statement admitting ownership of Cactus, in which he said: "The trust is called Cactus but that has nothing to do with the property in Nilo."
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He continued: "In the beginning, in 2000, Cactus was a one-hectare piece of land situated in the district of Nilo, in Colombia. My friend Jean-Philippe Couzi had bought a piece of land and I wanted to do the same so that we became neighbours." He admitted funding the construction of the mansion through the Bahamas bank account.
Questioned in turn by police, Gaubert's wife Hélène told them: "Cactus corresponds with the house we built in Colombia. I think it has more than 1,000 square metres, and there were about nine rooms. It is a gigantic house. Thierry had a weakness for grandeur, including for the swimming pool which is oversized. The salon is also very large. Thierry hired employees all year-round, and the caretaker even has a house inside the residence."
Mediapart spoke to former employees in Nilo, who were scathing in their comments about the pretence of the French "gringos" who rode about the village on horseback in royal manner. Gladys Martinez was the first of the Gaubert's housekeepers. She now runs a small greengrocer's business from her home. "They came when it was winter time here," she recounted. "Sometimes they were in a limousine. A second car carried their suitcases. They brought lots of baggage with them, I found that very exaggerated. But she was a princess and he was a very important man in France."
Gladys and the other employees wore white uniforms on which were embroidered a small cactus. In the photo below, a uniformed Gladys is surrounded by the former Colombian president Andres Pastrana and his wife. Indeed, on one occasion, the Gaubert family flew into Nilo aboard a helicopter placed at their disposition by Pastrana.
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"When they came, we employees numbered eight or ten," Gladys continued. "One looked after the garden. Another looked after the horses. There were some 30 horses, some have been sold. There were cows, too, which were marked with a crown. There was a linen keeper and a team for the kitchens. The meals had to be ready for a very precise time." She said French tableware was used when guests dined at the house.
"The dining room was enormous," she added, sketching the property on a piece of paper. "There were two towers. The princess's bedroom that gave onto the lake was enormous too. It was an artificial lake."
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Gladys recalled how on one occasion she stood in awe before the amount of clothes Gaubert's wife had, which she believes amounted to around 100 complete outfits, and was invited to choose one for herself. Gladys learnt of Gaubert's recent legal problems in an article in the Bogota weekly La Semana. "I never knew what he did," she said. "It's a bit of a disagreeable story. I thought that all the people who came were very elegant. I admired them very much. We would say ‘there's a princess'. It was the first princess that I ever met."
She said Gaubert, his wife and Couzi "inaugurated" the neighbouring military base of the Espro army school, adding that "they became friends of the commander".
Joachim Parga, a retired serviceman who now works as a ‘legal controller' at the Nilo village hall, claimed "they infiltrated" their way into local official favour. "Even the police escorted them," he added. The photo below bears witness to the attention afforded to the Gaubert family by the police.
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Gaubert and his wife also benefited from protection services offered by the Colombian government. Mediapart has gained access to a letter sent to Gaubert in May, 2003, by the then-Colombian defence minister, Maria Lucia Ramirez, in which she expressed her satisfaction at having been able to offer her "collaboration for security matters" during a visit to Colombia by the Gaubert family. "While awaiting the opportunity of welcoming you once again to Colombia, and assuring you that you can count on the full collaboration of the ministry I represent", she concluded, expressing her "highest respect" for Gaubert.
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Curiously, the Colombian minister's letter was addressed to Gaubert at the offices of the French Secretary of State for Parliamentary affairs, where he was never officially employed. Questioned about this by Mediapart, Gaubert replied: I was at the time, and for six months, a chargé de mission for Monsieur Jean-François Copé, who was the Secretary of State [...] I had no particular activity concerning Colombia, but they did give me someone for my security over there."
A spokesperson for Copé, who is now secretary-general of France's ruling UMP party, told Mediapart that Gaubert's activities for the then-Secretary of State were "benevolent". Also contacted by Mediapart, Maria Lucia Ramirez, who also served as Colombia's ambassador to France in 2002, indicated that because she no longer had a record of the events she could not reveal the reason for the services she provided.
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Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Lecompte, the estranged husband of Ingrid Betancourt, former sister-in-law to Jean-Philippe Couzi, recalled his visit to Palmera. "I asked Couzi why he bought this finca which seemed to me so large," he told Mediapart. "He told me that he had some experience in the tourism business and he wanted to get French people to come. The house could lodge about ten families. But I don't think he ever did that."
"I understood that Thierry Gaubert was the husband of the Princess of Yugoslavia, and that he was a multi-millionaire."
While the origin of the funds used by Gaubert and Couzi to build and maintain their properties remains obscure, numerous emails seized by police this year (see below, in French only) refer to a mutual management of the estates.
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Under questioning, Gaubert told French police earlier this year: "Annually, I reckon my spending [on Cactus] is in the order of 30,000 euros. It varies according to the work that is needed. To this day, my house has cost me 600,000 dollars. It must be realized that living in Colombia is not at all expensive." As an example, he said the monthly salary of his employees was 150 dollars.
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For more on the background to the issues raised in this interview and Mediapart's exclusive investigations into the political scandal surrounding the activities of arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, click on the links below:
Exclusive: British witness in French funding scandal hits back at ‘protected’ arms dealer
The arms dealer and his 'friendly' services for UMP leader Copé
French IT group Bull horned by libyan internet espionage deal
French judge finds key evidence in illegal funding probe
British divorcee becomes key witness in French political funding scandal
Net closes in on French presidency after funding 'scam' arrests
Arms dealer probe brings illegal funding scandal closer to Sarkozy
The secret financier who brings danger to the Sarkozy clan
Sarkozy, the arms dealer, and a secret 350 million-euro commission
The well-connected arms dealer and his tax returns
How Sarkozy aides saved arms dealer from paradise island 'death blow'
Exclusive: how Sarkozy's team sought grace for Gaddafi's murderous henchman
The arms dealer and his Paris party for the glitterati
Exlusive: how President Sarkozy's team dealt with Gaddafi
When Total paid the bill for the Elysée's secret emissary
How French intelligence shields the sarkozy clan's unofficial emissary
Divorce court freezes arms broker's assets
The French-built stealth offroader that may be hiding Gaddafi
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