Chirac, Villepin accused of ‘bungs’

FORMER president Jacques Chirac and ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin have both been accused of receiving cases stuffed with banknotes from the leaders of African countries such as the Congo, Ivory Coast and Senegal, by an aide to President Sarkozy.

Robert Bourgi, said to be a key link between France and former colonies in French Africa from the 1960s until recently, said he had regularly handed over briefcases containing “tens of millions of francs” to the two men, particularly during election periods.

He told the Journal du Dimanche that he had delivered several briefcases in person to Chirac when he was mayor of Paris, adding that he was called “Mr Chambertin” to cover his tracks. He said “there was never less than five million francs [€750,000]” and it could “go up to 15 million”.

Bourgi told the paper that he watched as Chirac counted out the money and then put it away in a desk.

His first handover, he told the newspaper, took place in 1995 when President Mobutu of Zaire had given him 10 million francs to be given to Chirac. Dominique de Villepin had been present when the money was handed over, he said.

The claims come at the same time as the publication of a book, Briefcase Republic, in which journalist Pierre Péan describes the cash handovers. He includes one quote from Chirac’s Africa counsellor, Michel de Bonnecorse, who says he saw Bourgi place a case full of money at the feet of then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.

Five African leaders are named in the newspaper report as having given francs and euros to be carried to France in cases and even African drums: Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso; Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Congo; Omar Bongo of Gabon; Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.

Chirac said Bourgi’s claims were “nonsense” and a part of a strategy against him for irritating the Elysée. Villepin denied the claims and said they were “lies” and a “smokescreen” coming out days before judges decide on the 2004 Clearstream affair where he is accused of a smear against Sarkozy, and the run-up to Chirac’s corruption trial over false jobs at Paris city hall.

Both men have now announced they are starting legal proceedings for defamation against Bourgi.

Leading Socialist Party presidential election challenger François Hollande has called for a police inquiry into the claims while the Front National’s Marine Le Pen spoke of a “Republic rotten to the core”.

Photo: Eric Pouhier