Suspicions of illegal taking of interests: end of investigations targeting Alexis Kohler

June 23, 2023

The investigating judges in charge of the judicial investigation for illegal taking of interests targeting the secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler for his family ties with the shipowner MSC announced on April 21 that they had completed their investigations, a-t- we learned Friday from sources close to the file and judicial.

Emmanuel Macron’s right-hand man, who denies having “committed any crime”, was indicted at the end of September 2022. Two senior officials and former superiors of Mr. Kohler at the State Participation Agency (APE), have been prosecuted for “complicity in the illegal taking of interests” since February 9 in this case.

Mr. Kohler’s lawyer, Me Eric Dezeuze, did not wish to speak.

“Appeals are pending before the investigating chamber,” said the judicial source.

According to the decision of the Court of Appeal on these appeals, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) could be required to take its requisitions before the investigating judges order or not a trial before the criminal court.

The PNF had opposed the lawsuits by filing a first complaint from the Anticor association filed in 2018 after the publication of Mediapart articles on this possible conflict of interest. Anticor then obtained in June 2020 the appointment of investigating judges by filing a complaint with civil action.

Alexis Kohler is suspected of having participated as a senior official between 2009 and 2016 in several decisions relating to the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC run by his mother’s cousins, the Aponte family.

Five deliberations by the authorities of STX France (now Chantiers de l’Atlantique) and three of the Grand Port Maritime du Havre (GPMH), linked to MSC, while he was a director, are concerned.

Then between 2012 and 2016, when he was a member of the cabinet of Pierre Moscovici then Emmanuel Macron at the Ministry of the Economy, Alexis Kohler is accused of having “persisted (?) in issuing opinions or giving strategic orientations relating” to cases involving MSC, according to his interrogation on September 22 and 23, 2022 before the investigating magistrates.

Alexis Kohler disputed “any wrongdoing” and any “benefit derived” from his situation.

He argued by specifying that he had not participated in any decision concerning the group, at the time STX-GPMH, having informed his hierarchy of his family ties and asked to leave his mandate as administrator of STX.

His votes in the board of directors expressed the position of the state, he said before the investigating judges.

Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly expressed his “confidence” in his secretary general. In a Supplement to the investigation devoted to Alexis Kohler and broadcast in March on France 2, the Head of State had defended the “honesty” of his right arm, “hyper committed, hyper competent”. “This procedure is not in the process of succeeding,” he assured.