RUNACHER BASKET. The Minister of Energy Transition targeted by an investigation because suspected of a conflict of interest will no longer be able to make a decision on the company Perenco, close to her family according to a decree published on November 15.
[Mis à jour le 15 novembre 2022 à 9h25] Agnès Pannier-Runacher sees her prerogatives as minister limited. The publication of a decree in the Official Journal this Tuesday, November 15, 2022 deprives the Minister for Energy Transition of the management of files involving the oil company Perenco and two other firms which have close ties with her family. The minister “does not know of acts of any kind relating to the international defense consulting group, the EP2C group and the Perenco group”, writes the official text precisely. The decision comes a week after the publication of the survey of Disclose revealing potential conflicts of interest between the ministerial missions and the personal and family interests of Agnès Pannier-Runacher. According to those close to the minister, the decision would come from the first concerned precisely to erase suspicions and prevent any conflict. The Minister of Ecological Transition also added “never had to make a decision concerning this foreign group, nor even to meet its representatives as part of her government duties” reports The world.
Last week, a shadow was cast over the family of Agnès Pannier-Runacher after the revelations about the donations made to the three children of the minister by their grandfather who is none other than the former leader of the second French producer petroleum, Perenco. Two elements make the anti-corruption body Anticor wince: the fact that the donations which amount to more than one million euros come from funds based in tax havens and that they are apparently linked to the former activity of Jean-Michel Runacher in the oil company, while the ecological missions of the minister are not unrelated to the oil industry. Agnès Pannier-Runacher is also questioned by this journalistic investigation because she never mentioned these donations, which date back to 2016, in these asset declarations when she took office in 2018 (Economy), in 2020 (Industry) or in 2022 (Energy transition). The revelations drew the attention of the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) which intends to “carry out in-depth checks”.
What is alleged against Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher?
If the Minister of Energy Transition is singled out, it is because the interests of her family could come into conflict with her ministerial missions. Disclose indicated in his article that the three minor children of number 2 of Ecology in the government are 100% shareholders and since 2016 of a company set up by the father of the minister thanks to speculative funds based in tax havens : Arjunem. When the company was set up – perceived as a pretext to bequeath to the Pannier-Runacher children donations of several hundred thousand euros each without having to pay inheritance tax – the beneficiaries were only 13, 10 and 5 years old and were legally represented by their mother.
Another questionable point, the more than 1.2 million euros contributed to Arjunem’s funds come from the finances of Jean-Michel Runacher, former director and manager of the oil company Perenco until 2020 and still an adviser “from time in time” in addition to still being at the head of at least two financial companies of the multinational. However, the fortune of the minister’s father “is so closely linked to that of the oil group that the funds invested in the family business come from the same investments as those of the oil company”, notes the newspaper investigation. Moreover, the funds of the Arjunem company are also placed in a Luxembourg bank, CBQ Quilvest, where part of the finances of the Perrodo family, founders of Perenco, are also based.
Did Agnès Pannier-Runacher hide a conflict of interest?
Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s family heritage is at the center of questions, but the minister is also suspected of having concealed what is understood by some to be a conflict of interest, starting with the Anticor association, an association whose vocation is to fight against all forms of political corruption. “There is no doubt that the minister is in a situation of conflict of interest. She should have declared the company preventively in the observations category as soon as she was appointed in 2018″, judge Béatrice Guillemont, general manager of the organization and doctor of probity law with journalists from Disclose. Laurent Dublet, member of the board of Anticor, abounded on France Info: “We realize that we are facing a political elite who will hide links of financial interests in total contradiction with the public policies they display. and the speeches she displays. This type of behavior is an absolutely incredible attack on our democratic system”. “We are at least in a conflict of interest, which is, according to the law of 2013, a situation of interference likely to influence or appear to influence the independent, impartial and objective exercise of a function. problem in the face of immense climate issues”, judged Delphine Batho, ecologist deputy for Deux-Sèvres.
However, the Minister for Energy Transition does not feel in any way in conflict of interest since she considers that she does not have “a vocation, nor any legal obligation to be associated with the professional and financial activities” of her father and firmly adds that she does not never having had to deal with “files related to Perenco” during his activities as minister since 2018. What about his asset declarations which never mentioned the funds or the Arjunem family company? Here again, the minister sees no ambiguity. The law on the law on transparency obliges the members of government to declare all their income and patrimonial resources as well as those of their spouse but no obligation concerns the declaration of the patrimony of the children. And in fact the three children of Agnès Pannier-Runacher are the only shareholders of the company although they still have no management power.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher worried by HATPV checks?
The minister’s defense is already well established and can count on strong lawyers, in particular Me Christophe Ingrain who manages the affairs of the Keeper of the Seals and Me François Kopf who was Bernard Tapie’s lawyer, specifies France info. If she defends herself from the accusations and suspicions brought against her, Agnès Pannier-Runacher assured that she would be available to the High Authority for the transparency of public life. The HATPV has promised to carry out in-depth checks and has already partly questioned the minister’s arguments on the absence of a declaration for the children’s assets: “The absence of a declaration obligation does not exempt the public official from ensuring to prevent and put an end to situations of conflict of interest that would arise from other indirect interests held, such as the activity of children or other family members for example”.