Claude Guéant, the former chief aide to France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, has been accused of taking a €500,000 bribe from Muammar Gaddafi and trying to cover it up with the sale of two small Flemish seascapes.
The accusations against Guéant have made by the prosecution during the ongoing trail of Sarkozy over allegations that he too took illegal payments from the late Libyan dictator. The case centres around an alleged €50m payment from Gaddafi to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.
The prosecution claims that in exchange, Gaddafi expected his brother-in-law and chief spy, Abdullah Senussi, to be cleared of any involvement in the crash of a Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) flight over Niger in 1989 and the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, which left 430 dead. Sarkozy has vigorously denied all charges.
In the Paris criminal court on Wednesday, the prosecution also pointed the finger at Guéant—one of Sarkozy’s close confidants and his interior minister from February 2011 to May 2012—accusing him of corruption, money laundering and criminal association.
Guéant is suspected of having been a key negotiator in the alleged deal with the late Libyan dictator—which he denies—and he is also accused of having pocketed some of the money for himself. The court was told that a criminal investigation had concluded that he received €500,000 out of the Libyan payments to finance the purchase of an apartment in a high-end district of Paris in 2008.
The Flemish connection
The former minister claims he received this sum for two marine landscapes, attributed to Antwerp artist Andries van Eertvelt, that he sold to an anonymous collector via the late Malaysian lawyer Sivajothi Rajendram. However, the investigators found that both small panels had been sold by Christie’s Amsterdam on 12 June 1990. Entitled Dutch three-masters in a storm, the pair was auctioned for 42,000 florins (48,300 including fees), the equivalent of €20,000, according to Art Price.
That was not the only inconsistency. Guéant produced an invoice for both paintings, dated from 1990, in euros—a decade before the birth of the European currency. He also provided a certificate from a furniture expert, allegedly authenticating the paintings, sent on 27 February 2008 but bearing the date of 28 February.
The wire transfers revealed by the investigation show that the €500,000 came from the account of Saudi billionaire Khalid Ali Bugshan, who was allegedly refunded by Libya. Charged with complicity, Bughsan told the investigating judge that he was “completely unaware” of the motives of the transaction which was carried out by his right-hand man.
Claude Guéant, now 80 and in poor health (his hearing was limited to one hour for medical reasons), is also facing a €535,500 tax fine, which he is challenging in court. He has already been convicted three times in other cases for embezzlement of public funds and fraud, and has served jail time.