Supplies for your facilities French defense group Tales, I perceived within the limits of two investigations about sales of military equipment abroad.
The French defense group Thales, one of the largest in the world, has already faced controversy over allegations of corruption.
The investigations were carried out on Wednesday and last Friday at the headquarters of several group companies, in France, Holland and Spain, a source in the judicial system told AFP, confirming information broadcast yesterday by BFMTV.
Preliminary investigations into corruption and undue influence
According to this source, the operations “were carried out within the scope of two preliminary investigations” into corruption and undue influence by a foreign official.
“The first began at the end of 2016” and involves accusations of corruption of “foreign officials”, “private corruption”, “conspiracy and conspiracy” and “money laundering”, crimes linked to the “sale of submarines and the construction of a naval unit based in Brazil”, clarified the judicial source.
During an official visit by then French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Rio de Janeiro in 2008, France and Brazil signed a contract for the sale of four conventionally powered Scorpène submarines for a value then estimated at 5.2 billion euros.
These submarines carried equipment from Thales, one of the largest defense groups on a global scale, which has, among other things, goods and services in sectors such as aerospace, security, defense, land transport and so on.
The three submarines have already been delivered.
The second aspect of the case concerns the construction of a second naval base and submarine shipyard in Itaguaí, opened in 2018.
According to the judicial source, the second investigation, which has not yet been disclosed, began in June 2023.
It concerns especially suspicions of corruption and undue influence for consideration; corruption of foreign officials, private corruption, conspiracy and conspiracy, money laundering and embezzlement, within the scope of various processes for the purpose of “selling military and civilian material abroad”.
Investigations are ongoing
According to the judicial source – who highlighted that “investigations are ongoing” -, the operations “involved 65 investigators from OCLCIFF” and “12 judges from the PNF”, and there was also “cooperation with the Dutch and Spanish judicial authorities and coordination with Eurojust ”.
He referred, in turn, to the French central service for the repression of corruption and financial and tax crimes (Office central de lutte contre la corrupt et les infractions financières et fiscales), the French Public Prosecutor’s Office (Parquet national financier) and the European Union Agency for Cooperation in the Sector of Criminal Justice.
For its part, the company “confirms that investigations have been carried out”. “The group is cooperating with the competent authorities”, the French agency assured last night.
Thales “recalls that it strictly complies with national and international regulations. The company has developed and implemented a global compliance program (…) that meets the highest industry standards”, insisted the French multinational group.
Thales was already facing suspicions of corruption.
A Paris judge is expected to decide soon whether to grant a request by the PNF, which has called for a trial against Thales, DCNI (a subsidiary of Naval Group), three former top executives and an intermediary, as there are suspicions of corruption in the 2002 submarine sale deal to Malaysia.
The French multinational rejects
French prosecutors also began a preliminary investigation, revealed in May 2023, to find out whether there was corruption – which the French multinational denies – in the tender process to modernize the Indian Air Force’s Mirage 2000 fighters.
Another investigation, launched in December 2020, concerns a former executive of the French multinational who holds a key position at the UN, which is a client of Thales.
AMP Source