On Wednesday July 10, the French courts validated the payment by the Gabonese company Sotec of a fine of 520,000 euros in a corruption case, in which the prosecution recently requested a trial for the French group Marck and for a former right-hand man of Ali Bongo.
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The French courts on Wednesday validated the payment of a fine of half a million euros by the company Sotec, accused of complicity in active bribery of foreign public officials. This Gabonese company cooperated with the public prosecutor’s office, which has been investigating since July 2007 a seven million euro deal concluded in late 2005 between the French group Marck and the Gabon.
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At the time, Marck, a manufacturer of military uniforms, is said to have used Maixent Accrombessi, right-hand man ofAli Bongothen Minister of Defense of Gabon, as an intermediary. He allegedly received money in exchange for the award of a public contract worth 7 million euros. The company Sotec, owned by Gabonese businessman Seydou Kane, is considered in this affair as one of the ” vectors ” of corruption, explained prosecutor Nicolas Barret at the hearing of the Paris judicial court. On Wednesday, the prosecution specified that it had requested in February a trial against the Marck group for corruption of a foreign public official and against Maixent Accrombessi for laundering of these facts.
Seydou Kane has already accepted a fine
The fine was established as part of a public interest judicial agreement (CJIP) signed by the group and its subsidiary with the Paris prosecutor’s office and validated on Wednesday by the president of the court Stéphane Noël. According to the prosecutor’s office, its amount was calculated taking into account ” major factors “, such as the accusation of the Gabonese official, then collaborator of Ali Bongo. As for Seydou Kane, he was sentenced on June 5 during an appearance on prior admission of guilt (CRPC), a French-style plea bargain, to a fine of 500,000 euros, of which 200,000 was suspended.
Under the CJIP, the penalty does not constitute an admission of guilt or a conviction. This CJIP allows ” to put an end to a case that goes back almost 20 years “, commented Messrs. Clémentine Veltz, Emmanuel Daoud and Éric Moutet, who represent Sotec and Seydou Kane. ” This criminal negotiation mechanism also allows small companies to turn a judicial page that has been too long “, they noted.
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The case caused a stir in 2015 when the Beninese naturalized Gabonese, who became the president’s chief of staff, was briefly arrested and questioned in France. Ali Bongo had denounced an attempt ” to humiliate his country “.