On Friday 26 February 2021, the Court of Justice of Paris was in favour of the trial of businessman Vincent Bolloré for acts of corruption in Togo. The court has also opened the door to proceedings against the Bolloré group, which will also have to pay a fine of 12 million euros. A sum that the company undertakes to pay «to the Treasury within ten days», according to the press release of the National Financial Office.
After having admitted their guilt, Vincent Bolloré, Gilles Alix, Managing Director of the Bolloré Group and Jean-Philippe Dorent, International Director of the Havas Agency, Bolloré’s subsidiary, had accepted an appearance on prior acknowledgement of guilt as well as the payment of a fine of 375 thousand euros.
Vincent Bolloré had pleaded guilty but the Court of Justice of Paris demanded the holding of a trial without failing to fix a fine of 12 million euros that the company Bolloré SE will have to pay to put an end to any lawsuits.To this fine is added the provisioning of 4 million euros to bear the cost of a compliance program with the rules of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (Afa), which will carry out a follow-up for two years, according to the terms of the Cjip. According to the judge of the Court of Paris, the charges against Vincent Bolloré have «seriously damaged the economic public order and the sovereignty of Togo.»
It should be recalled that Vincent Bolloré, Gilles Alix and Jean-Philippe Dorente acknowledged having used the political advisory activities of the Havas subsidiary in order to obtain the management of the ports of Lomé, Togo, and Conakry, Guinea, via another of its subsidiaries, Bolloré Africa logistics, formerly called Sdv.
Sdv had obtained the management of the port of Conakry a few months after the election of Alpha Condé as president of Guinea at the end of 2010, and had won the concession to Lomé shortly before the re-election in 2010 in Togo of Faure Gnassingbé, who were both then advised by Havas. By the end of 2013, a judicial investigation had been opened for “corruption of foreign public officials, breach of trust and complicity in breach of trust” committed between 2009 and 2011.
In June 2019, the Paris Court of Appeal annulled the indictment of part of the offences committed in Guinea on grounds of limitation.
