PARIS — Dominique de Villepin, a former French prime minister expected to run in next year’s presidential election, is being investigated over gifts he received while serving as foreign minister, the country’s top financial prosecutor said Wednesday.
“A preliminary investigation … into charges of receiving stolen property, embezzlement of public funds and all related offenses” has been opened, the prosecutor, Pascal Prache, said in a statement.
According to Prache, the investigation concerns two gifts allegedly received by de Villepin between 2002 and 2004, during his tenure as France’s top diplomat. De Villepin is best known for his impassioned 2003 speech at the United Nations speaking out against military intervention in Iraq ahead of the United States’ invasion.
An investigative report that aired on French public television last month claimed that De Villepin had received two statuettes of Napoleon worth thousands of euros from Robert Bourgi, a French lobbyist who has worked closely with African officials in former French colonies. One of the pieces had allegedly been given to Bourgi by Blaise Compaoré, who was president of Burkina Faso from 1991 to 2010. Bourgi allegedly received the other from Italian businessman Gian Angelo Perrucci.
“Financial prosecutors will have no trouble getting to the bottom of this case, and Dominique de Villepin is calm and ready to cooperate with the investigation,” said a member of the former foreign minister’s team.
Earlier this month, de Villepin said accepting the gifts from Bourgi had been a “mistake” but downplayed the significance of the allegations.
Following a long absence from domestic politics after a failed presidential run in 2012, de Villepin launched his own political party, Humanist France, last year. He has since laid the groundwork to run in next year’s race to replace current President Emmanuel Macron.
The 72-year-old previously served as chief of staff, foreign affairs minister, interior minister and prime minister under conservative President Jacques Chirac.
De Villepin is not the only presidential hopeful under scrutiny from the French justice system. The financial prosecutor’s office announced Tuesday that Edouard Philippe, the center-right mayor of Le Havre and a leading candidate for 2027, is also being investigated over allegations of financial wrongdoing. Philippe will cooperate fully with the investigation, a local official linked to him said Tuesday.
French presidential hopeful de Villepin probed over gifts received as foreign minister
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