ABDUL RAHMAN AL-ASSIR

INTERNATIONAL

Former top French government aides sent for trial in arms kickbacks scam

JUN 12, 2014 BY FABRICE ARFI

At the end of an investigation that has lasted more than three years, six people, including a former minister and the current managing director of luxury goods firm LVMH, have been sent for trial for their alleged roles in a gigantic political funding scam that centred on secret cash kickbacks from French weapons sales abroad. The case, one the biggest political corruption scandals to have emerged in France in recent decades, yet threatens to engulf the political masters of those accused - former French prime minister Édouard Balladur, his defence minister François Léotard, and Balladur's budget minister, later French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Fabrice Arfi reports.

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EDOUARD BALLADUR NICOLAS BAZIRE NICOLAS SARKOZY RENAUD DONNEDIEU DE VABRES 1995 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN DOMINIQUE CASTELLAN FRANÇOIS LÉOTARD ILLEGAL POLITICAL FUNDING KARACHI

FRANCE

Karachi affair: final proof of secret kickbacks to fund French politicians

MAY 11, 2014 BY FABRICE ARFI

The prosecution authorities in Paris have recommended that six people, including three former senior political aides, face trial over the Karachi affair. The ex-aides, who at the time of the alleged offences were working for prime minister Édouard Balladur, defence minister François Léotard and budget minister Nicolas Sarkozy, are accused of setting up a massive system to siphon "commissions" from major arms deals back to France for political funding, or of receiving those illegal kickbacks. Mediapart has now obtained a copy of the prosecutors' legal reasoning, which details this complex web of networks and bank accounts and which, confirm the prosecutors, was aimed at the "secret funding of French politicians". As Fabrice Arfi reports, the question still remains as to whether the advisors' political masters will one day face trial over the affair.

Trump’s election campaign manager Paul Manafort is suspected by a French judicial investigation of having signed a fake contract with Paris-based arms dealer Ziad Takieddine to help the latter hide the real origin of cash seized by customs officers which he had smuggled into France from Switzerland. The incident occurred at the height of what has become known as the “Karachi Affair”, involving suspected illegal funding of former French prime minister Édouard Balladur’s 1995 presidential election campaign. Manafort is also suspected by the investigation of having invoiced the Balladur camp for unnecessary opinion polls during the campaign. Karl Laske and Fabrice Arfi report.

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Judges step up hunt for the phantom figure behind the Karachi Affair

FEB 14, 2012 BY FABRICE ARFI AND KARL LASKE

A key suspect in a major investigation into the French illegal political funding scandal known as the ‘Karachi Affair’ is also wanted for suspected money laundering by police in Spain, where he had close links with former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and King Juan Carlos, Mediapart can reveal. Companies belonging to Abdul Rahman Al Assir (pictured), a Lebanese-born businessman and arms intermediary, received millions of euros in commissions from French weapons sales that are at the heart of corruption scam allegations implicating President Sarkozy and his close entourage. Despite an international arrest warrant issued against him, El Assir is still on the run. Mediapart, meanwhile, tracked him down in Geneva. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report on the phantom witness that some are hoping will remain just so.