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Paris, on March 13, 2014
French
billionaire industrialist and senator Serge Dassault denies with "the
greatest strength" charges of vote buying in his former fiefdom close to
Paris, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Dassault, 89, is accused of
operating an extensive system of vote buying that influenced the outcome
of elections in Corbeil-Essonnes, where he was mayor from 1995 to 2009.
A
judicial source told AFP on Thursday that Dassault had been charged
with vote buying, complicity in illegal election campaign financing and
exceeding campaign spending limits.
"Serge Dassault disputes with
the greatest strength the merits of this indictment which has no serious
foundation, and is based only on the accusations of individuals against
whom he has filed complaints of repeated malicious phone calls and
attempted extortion against him," his lawyer, Pierre Haik, said in a
statement.
Dassault is free without bail pending trial.
The
charges relate to three elections in Corbeil in 2008, 2009 and 2010,
which were won either by Dassault or his successor and close associate
Jean-Pierre Bechter.
Dassault is ranked by Forbes magazine as
France's fourth-richest man and the 69th-richest in the world, with an
estimated fortune of 13 billion euros ($18 billion).
He heads the
Dassault Group, which owns the country's main right-wing newspaper Le
Figaro and holds a majority stake in Dassault Aviation which makes
commercial and military aircraft, including the Rafale fighter jet.
The
result of the 2008 vote, won by Dassault, was invalidated by the
Council of State after the body which oversees public administration
discovered a series of payments which could have influenced the outcome.
"He
solemnly reaffirms that loans or grants made to some of the citizens of
Corbeil-Essonnes have always been outside of any electoral process and
were motivated only by his desire to put his personal fortune to the
service of those in difficulty or who want to start professional
projects," his lawyer said on Thursday.
- Well-oiled electoral machine -
Bechter
has already been charged, as has Cristela de Oliveira, a former
official in the mayor's office who is suspected of allocating council
flats to families in return for backing Dassault or Bechter.
The
investigation focused on about seven million euros ($9.7 million) that
may have ended up in the hands of intermediaries, including funds
transferred from Lebanon.
A lawmaker from former president Nicolas
Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, Dassault admits using his vast
personal wealth to help residents of Corbeil, but denies any payouts
were made in exchange for electoral support.
At least two men who
claim to have been paid handsomely by Dassault to help organise the
alleged vote buying have described a well-oiled electoral machine that
targeted poorer families from immigrant backgrounds.
In return for
support, residents could expect money for driving lessons -- a key to
coveted municipal jobs -- or with finding accommodation subsidised by
the local council, the men have claimed.
French media have linked the scandal to two shootings in Corbeil last year which police are treating as attempted murders.
In
1998, Dassault received a two-year suspended prison sentence in Belgium
for bribing members of the country's Socialist Party to win an army
helicopter contract in what became known as the Agusta scandal.
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