Former French spy chief sentenced to four years in influence-peddling trial

A Paris court on Friday sentenced the former
head of France’s domestic intelligence agency to four years in prison, two of
them suspended, on charges of using his security contacts for private gain
including by obtaining confidential information for luxury giant LVMH.

Bernard Squarcini, 69, known as “le Squale” (the shark), will appeal the
verdict, said Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, one of his lawyers.

LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man, testified during the
trial but was never charged and denied any knowledge of a scheme to protect
the luxury group.

The former head of the DCRI security service (since renamed the DGSI) was
also ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 euros and given a ban on professional
activities relating to intelligence or advisory services for five years.

The sanctions handed out by the Paris criminal court were broadly in line
with what prosecutors were demanding.

Squarcini is however expected to never set foot in prison with the two-year
jail term set to be served with an electronic tag, as is often the case in
France with short sentences.

The charges relate to the period when Squarcini headed the DCRI from 2008
to 2012 and to his subsequent return to the private sector, when he worked
largely for LVMH as a consultant.

Investigators say that as early as 2008, DCRI officers were deployed to try
to identify a blackmailer targeting Arnault.

Other allegations relate to spying on Francois Ruffin, a former journalist
who is now a leading left-wing lawmaker — and, from 2013 to 2016, the leftist
newspaper Fakir that Ruffin founded.

“I would like to point out that I am here as a witness, a simple witness,
and that my indictment was never considered by the investigating magistrates,”
Arnault told a hearing when he testified in November.

“I was completely unaware” of the alleged scheme, he added.(AFP)