Nicolas Sarkozy is secretly attempting to set up a 1 billion-euro private equity fund, with plans for it to be based in London, and has begun prospecting wealthy individuals and institutions to back the scheme, financial and business sources have told Mediapart. According to concordant sources, the former French President (pictured) has made discreet contact with potential backers based in France, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Laurent Mauduit reports.
France-based businessman and arms dealer Ziad Takieddine is a key witness in an ongoing French judicial probe into suspected illegal party financing through commissions paid in a major French weapons sale to Pakistan. In a series of investigations that began in July, Mediapart has revealed the very close and longstanding links between Takieddine and the inner circle of advisors and aides surrounding Nicolas Sarkozy - before and after he became French president - and for whose office he served as a secret diplomatic and commercial emissary. Here, Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske reveal how Takieddine, while negotiating a rapprochement between France and Libya, served as a protector for Colonel Mumamar Gaddafi's nephew Mohammed al-Senussi (photo) after he was charged in London with causing ‘grievous bodily harm' to two escort girls.
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