A friend and ally of far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen has been investigated by the fraud squad over his business dealings. No prosecution took place but the investigation did unveil the financial links between Frédéric Chatillon – whose firm helped Le Pen's recent presidential election campaign - and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. For his part Chatillon claims the top secret investigation was politically motivated. Karl Laske and Marine Turchi report.
For Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right Front National (FN), he is an embarrassing old friend. Frédéric Chatillon, aged 44, the former head of the extreme-right Groupe union défense (GUD) (1) and a service provider for Le Pen's presidential election campaign earlier this year, was investigated for more than twelve months by the fraud squad over his business dealings with Syria.
