Former President Nicolas Sarkozy will be tried in 2025 on suspicion of Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign, the national financial prosecutor announced on Friday August 25. The one who was President of the Republic from 2007 to 2012 has always disputed these accusations.
This is not the first court case in which Mr. Sarkozy has appeared. The former strongman of the right, who published a new volume of his memoirs in August 2023, has been cited in various capacities in several political and financial cases, and has already been convicted in the Bygmalion case (at first instance and on appeal) as well as in that of “wiretapping”.
Wiretapping case (Azibert-Bismuth)
Sentenced at first instance and on appeal
The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed, in a decision handed down on Wednesday May 17, the conviction of the former President of the Republic to three years in prison, including one firm, for corruption and influence peddling. The appeals court also issued a three-year civil rights ban, making him ineligible. He had been sentenced to the same sentence in 2021. As soon as the decision was announced, Mr. Sarkozy’s counsel announced that he would appeal to the Court of Cassation.
Justice accuses him of having tried to obtain from a magistrate at the Court of Cassation, Gilbert Azibert, secret information from another case concerning him (the Bettencourt file). In exchange, Nicolas Sarkozy would have promised to intervene in favor of the magistrate so that he obtains a prestigious position in Monaco. The charge is based on wiretapping of conversations between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, on an unofficial line – two prepaid phones purchased under the name “Paul Bismuth”.
2012 campaign accounts (Bygmalion)
Convicted at first instance, appeal trial in November 2023
Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison on September 30, 2021 for “illegal election campaign financing” by the Paris Criminal Court.
The former president appeared from May 20 to June 22, 2021 before the criminal court on suspicion of illegal financing of his campaign in 2012; he only appeared in court for one day of hearings.
Alongside Mr. Sarkozy, the other thirteen defendants were all convicted of “complicity in illegal election campaign financing”. Bastien Millot, co-president of the Bygmalion group and friend of Jean-François Copé, was sentenced to three years in prison, including 18 months suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros. Franck Attal, Sébastien Borivent and Guy Alvès, three former executives of Bygmalion and its subsidiary Event
The investigation and the trial brought to light the system of false invoices and false agreements linking the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the communication agency Bygmalion, responsible for organizing the numerous meetings of the flash campaign of Mr. Sarkozy in 2012, in order to hide the massive overrun of the legal ceiling for electoral expenses authorized by law.
The former president was, in fact, informed on March 7, 2012, by a warning note, of the risk of exceeding the authorized ceiling, which he ignored and chose, on the contrary, to increase the number of its meetings. “By boosting his campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy failed to respect the essential value of equality between candidates. Let him bear the consequences today alongside those who worked for him, “said the two prosecutors during the requisitions.
Thirteen of the fourteen convicted, including Nicolas Sarkozy, appealed the decision. “I will go all the way in this quest that goes beyond my personal case because everyone can one day find themselves confronted with injustice,” the former president said immediately after his sentencing. The appeal trial will begin on November 8, 2023 and will last one month.
Suspicions of Libyan funding in 2007
Trial in early 2025
Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of having financed part of his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
After ten years of investigation, two financial magistrates have signed his referral to the criminal court, where he will be tried for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”, “passive corruption”, “illegal financing of electoral campaign” and “association criminals with a view to committing an offense punishable by ten years’ imprisonment”.
The hearing will be held “between January 6, 2025 and April 10, 2025” before the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, according to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
The removal order also targets twelve other people, including three former ministers – Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, close to Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as Eric Woerth, ex-treasurer of the suspect presidential campaign – and two businessmen: the Franco-Lebanese Ziad Takieddine, on the run in Lebanon, and the Franco-Algerian Alexandre Djouhri, suspected of having served as intermediaries.
“There has never been near or far, neither in cash nor in transfer, the slightest Libyan penny to finance my campaign”, defended Nicolas Sarkozy during his hearing before the judges, in October 2020. On May 10, 2023, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office had requested the dismissal of the former head of state before the criminal court, considering that, “if it seems clear that all the Libyan funds initially intended [for the campaign] n was not mobilized for this purpose”, “opaque circuits of circulation of Libyan funds [have] resulted, in fine, in cash disbursements in a time frame and chronology compatible with occult use”.
The Karachi Affair
Witness assisted
With the approach of the 1995 elections, the government of Edouard Balladur, of which Nicolas Sarkozy was budget minister, would have granted huge commissions during arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Part of the sums would have returned through intermediaries to finance the presidential campaign of Mr. Balladur, for which Mr. Sarkozy was a spokesperson.
In February 2014, the judges responsible for the financial aspect of the Karachi case deemed it necessary to hear Nicolas Sarkozy as an assisted witness. He was heard in May 2017, to explain the endorsement he gave to these controversial contracts.
In June 2020, six convictions were pronounced by the criminal court in the financial part of the investigation, with an appeal trial scheduled for spring 2024, while in 2021 François Léotard and Edouard Balladur were acquitted by the Court of justice of the Republic.
On the sidelines of the Karachi trial, the former president was also targeted by an investigation for “violation of the secrecy of the instruction” because of a press release from the Elysée in 2011 reporting on the progress of the legal proceedings. , in which the executive is not supposed to interfere. In 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal authorized three magistrates to investigate the matter.
Russian case (Reso-Garantia)
Under preliminary investigation
Justice is questioning a transfer of 500,000 euros received at the beginning of 2020 by Nicolas Sarkozy, as part of a consulting contract with the Russian insurance group Reso-Garantia. According to Mediapart, which revealed the case in early 2021, “justice is seeking to verify whether the former head of state only acted as a consultant, which would be perfectly legal, or whether he would have engaged in potentially criminal lobbying activities on behalf of Russian oligarchs”.
A preliminary investigation for “influence peddling” was opened against Nicolas Sarkozy by the PNF in the summer of 2020. It is still ongoing.
Bernard Tapie and the Crédit Lyonnais arbitration
Out of cause (immunity)
Nicolas Sarkozy was president in 2008 when the State accepted, during an arbitration, to pay 404 million euros to the businessman Bernard Tapie, in compensation for the damage he would have suffered during the sale of ‘Adidas in 1993.
The arbitration, marred by manipulation, was canceled by the courts in 2015, and Bernard Tapie ordered to reimburse. Christine Lagarde, who had agreed to arbitration as Minister of the Economy, was convicted in 2016 of “negligence” by the Court of Justice of the Republic.
In this case, Nicolas Sarkozy refused to come and testify, hiding behind his presidential immunity. He was therefore never questioned, even if the judges wondered for a long time about his closeness to Bernard Tapie, and the role he could have played in the arbitration.
Elysée polls
Out of cause (immunity)
Under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the Elysée is suspected of having awarded several contracts irregularly for the supply of surveys contracted with the companies of two advisers to the president, Patrick Buisson and Pierre Giacometti.
In 2019, justice decided to send six people back to corrections, including two close to Nicolas Sarkozy. The former secretary general of the Elysée Claude Guéant was sentenced in January 2022 to eight months in prison for favoritism, and was released on parole a month later.
Mr. Sarkozy could not be targeted by the judges because the case had taken place within his mandate. It was in the name of this presidential immunity that he refused to surrender to the judge’s summons in 2016.
Bettencourt case
Out of cause (dismissal)
After being auditioned several times, placed under the status of assisted witness, then indicted for abuse of weakness, influence peddling and concealment, Nicolas Sarkozy was dismissed in 2013. The investigators did not managed to gather sufficient evidence showing that he would have taken advantage of the state of weakness of the extremely wealthy Liliane Bettencourt, heiress of the L’Oréal group.
Campaign Account Penalties
Out of cause (dismissal)
The investigation opened for breach of trust targeted the penalties for exceeding the spending limit for Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2012 campaign. He should have paid for them himself; however, they were settled by the UMP. Placed under the status of assisted witness, the former president finally benefited from a dismissal in September 2015, like the other protagonists.
Update of May 12 at 4 p.m.: update of information concerning several cases (wiretapping, Bygmalion, Libyan financing, Karachi, polls) and withdrawal of cases in which the president had been cited during investigations but never directly implicated by justice (Kazakhgate, 500 euro notes, jet travel). August 25 update: Added the announcement of the trial in the Libyan funding case.
