'Explosive' Elf scam trial opens
PARIS, March 17 (AFP) - A massive system of government-supported corruption at the formerly state-owned oil company Elf will be exposed when one of the biggest criminal trials ever in modern France opens in Paris Monday.
After eight years of investigations and the accumulation of 250 thick files of evidence, the court will hear the case against 37 suspects accused of benefiting from hundreds of millions of euros embezzled from the now-privatised firm in the early 1990s.
Leading the accused are two men already serving prison terms after being convicted in the trial of former French foreign minister Roland Dumas on related charges: the ex-president of Elf Loik le Floch-Prigent, 59, and his number two Alfred Sirven, 76.
A third key suspect Andre Tarallo, 75, who was known as Elf's Mr Africa for his network of contacts on the continent, was like Dumas acquitted in the first trial.
The three men - who are being tried under the catch-all charge of "abuse of company assets" - are alleged to have enriched themselves to the tune of billions of francs by creaming off the commissions that were systematically paid out by Elf at the time to influential middlemen and foreign leaders.
Sirven, who was extradited from the Philippines to appear in the Dumas trial two years ago, received jewels, a villa in Ibiza and a chateau in central France; Tarallo got property in Paris and Corsica; and Le Floch-Prigent EUR 5 million to pay for a divorce.
The other accused are Elf executives and private intermediaries who are alleged to have arranged pay-offs around the world and helped hide the funds in secret accounts in Switzerland, Luxembourg and other tax-havens.
Investigators believe the trial will reveal the extent of a vast network of influence-buying, originally put in place by the French government as Elf expanded into Africa in the 1960s and 70s, which exploded out of control under Le Floch-Prigent's management between 1989 and 1993.
In a recent interview Dumas said that Elf "gradually turned into a milch-cow. Its capital was used to reward African heads of state, but also - one thing leading to another - to bail out certain empty coffers."
The leaders of several African countries - including Gabon, Angola and Congo - are mentioned in the evidence, though as the payment and receipt of commissions were not itself illegal when the events took place there has been no attempt to bring them to trial.
The judge leading the investigation, Renaud van Ruymbeke, has said he was prevented from discovering the full extent of commissions paid by Elf to African governments because the former Socialist government in Paris declared that much of the evidence was covered by official secrecy laws.
Van Ruymbeke has also been unable to substantiate reports that money paid by Elf came back to France in the form of "retro-commissions" to fund political parties. Before his extradition Sirven boasted that he knew enough to "blow up the republic 20 times over" but he has yet to show his hand.
The trial is expected to last till June.
A "Yes" May Cost France Oil Contracts
Iraq warns France of high price to pay for UN vote
Agence France Presse, December 5, 1999
An official Iraqi newspaper warned France on Sunday of a high price to pay if it sides with the United States in a UN Security Council vote linking a suspension of sanctions to a new disarmament regime.
Such a vote would be "the last straw for Iraqi-French relations," said Babel, a daily run by President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday.
As a result it would be "only logical for the French (oil)companies Elf and Total to close their offices in Baghdad and lose the immense concessions which they have won but not yet exploited."
"The numerous advantages which French companies enjoy on the Iraqi market could also be halted," Babel said, protesting that Iraqis had "suffered a lot because of the position adopted by the French government."
Iraq has rejected in advance a British draft resolution at the Security Council that makes a suspension of sanctions conditional on Iraqi cooperation with a new arms control panel.
US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Saturday that a vote on the resolution could come "very, very soon."
The Security Council has been divided on Iraq policy since an air war waged in December 1998 by the United States and Britain, which both take a hard line against lifting sanctions.
But a senior US official at the United Nations said Friday that the resolution would finally be voted on within the next week.
The United States backs the British draft, while France has not announced its position but played a role in enhancing a UN humanitarian programme under the resolution.
After having accused Paris at length over several days of abandoning its circle of "friends", Baghdad is counting on Moscow, which has multi-billion dollar interests tied up in Iraq, to block the resolution.
The commentary in Babel, which is run by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, noted that France had fought against Iraq in the US-led multinational coalition in the conflict over Kuwait.
France took part "in the attacks and the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure," Hashemi said. "An historic opportunity presents itself today (for France) to allow Iraqis to forget the past and turn over a new page," he wrote, warning that "French interests and its standing in the whole region" were at stake.
Sanctions have been in force since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Baghdad insists its weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated and that the time has come for a full and unconditional lifting of sanctions.
A ruling Baath party official, meanwhile, said the extension of the UN oil-for-food programme was nothing more an American "joke" and a ploy to pressure the Security Council into passing the British draft.
"The Security Council ... will assume responsibility for the continuation of the embargo and the agression aimed at exterminating the Iraqi people," said Abdel Ghani Abdel Ghafour.
Iraq has rejected stopgap extensions of the oil-for-food programme since the last phase run out on November 20 and taken its oil off the world market.
The humanitarian programme -- launched in December 1996 in renewable six-monthly phases -- allows Iraq to export crude to finance imports of food and medicine under UN supervision.