Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: Battistelli's Former “Padrone” Facing Corruption Charges in France

Summary: Battistelli's former "padrone" made the headlines this week when he was taken into police custody in France and charged with corruption and other breaches of law

Battistelli's former "padrone" made the headlines this week when he was taken into police custody in France and charged with corruption and other breaches of law ("Nicolas Sarkozy charged with corruption").

SarkozyNicolas Paul Stéphane Sárközy de Nagy-Bocsa, the former President of France and ex officio co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012 -- who has also been known to operate under the false identity of "Paul Bismuth" -- was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday on suspicion of corruption, the misuse of Libyan public money and breaking French election campaign funding law.

This is not the first time that Sarkozy has been taken into police custody.

Ever since his term of office as President of France ended and he was longer by immunity from prosecution he has been under investigation for various alleged irregularities relating to his Presidential election campaigns in 2007 and 2012.

"Ever since his term of office as President of France ended and he was longer by immunity from prosecution he has been under investigation for various alleged irregularities relating to his Presidential election campaigns in 2007 and 2012."Already in July 2014 he was taken into custody following the arrest of his lawyer and two magistrates who were under investigation for allegedly using their influence to obtain information about legal cases against him.

Authorised wire-taps of his telephone indicated that he had been in contact with a magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, then a member of the Cour de Cassation, to ask for confidential information about another investigation into campaign donations from the L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. In those conversations, it is alleged that Sarkozy promised Azibert promotion to a high-level position in Monaco in return for information on the case against him.

SarkozyThe charges which made headlines this week relate to suspicions that Sarkozy accepted up to €50 million from the Libyan despot Gaddafi to fund his successful 2007 Presidential campaign. Sarkozy is trying to portray himself as the victim of a Libyan smear campaign as he seeks to rebut allegations that Gaddafi bankrolled his rise to power.

"However the extreme opacity which shrouds the EPO's financial affairs and the lack of an independent Audit Committee since 2011 make it difficult if not impossible to obtain any reliable information about such matters."However, it should not be forgotten that criminal proceedings have also been launched against Sarkozy in another case of alleged illicit campaign financing relating to his unsuccessful Presidential election campaign in 2012.

In this case it is alleged that he engaged in fraud using sophisticated accounting mechanisms to cloak and mask the sources of funds and to circumvent the ceiling for campaign expenditure in 2012, which was €22.5m. Mr Sarkozy denies he was aware of the overspending. This affair is known as the Bygmalion scandal. See Nicolas Sarkozy: French ex-president under formal investigation and Nicolas Sarkozy to face trial over 2012 campaign financing.

The most recent developments in Sarkozy's case may turn out to have implications for the EPO because they are likely to renew interest in the long-standing and persistent rumours that EPO funds were diverted to assist in the financing of Sarkozy's unsuccessful election campaign in 2012.

As confirmed by an article published in the French news paper Libération in June 2016 (English translation here), it is generally recognised that Battistelli was "propelled" into his position at the EPO in 2010 by Sarkozy.

The timing of Battistelli's EPO appointment is interesting because he took up his duties in Munich in July 2010 about a year before the Presidential election campaign kicked-off in France in mid-2011.

Qadaffi's sonOne of Battistelli's earliest actions at the EPO was to press for the disbanding of the independent Audit Committee which he managed to push past the Administrative Council in 2011.

At around the same time France was playing a key role in the 2011 international coalition that deposed and killed the Libyan leader Gaddafi.

Back then Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam claimed the Libyan regime had financed Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. Qadaffi's son is shown above with the person many hold responsible for the attack on Libya.

If these allegations are true, then it would be reasonable to assume that in 2011 Sarkozy who was busy trying to eliminate his one-time ally in Libya was also on the look-out for new sources to fund his upcoming Presidential election campaign.

Battistelli's close connections to Sarkozy and his known affiliations with the UMP (subsequently renamed "Les Républicains") have given rise to a lot of speculation at the EPO that he may have been involved in the funding efforts for the 2012 election campaign.

However the extreme opacity which shrouds the EPO's financial affairs and the lack of an independent Audit Committee since 2011 make it difficult if not impossible to obtain any reliable information about such matters.

SarkozyIn this connection it should not be overlooked that one of the EPO's auditors since 2014 is Mr. Frédéric Angermann who coincidentally used to be the secretary-general at the INPI from 2007 to 2012 when Battistelli was the Director of that institution.

Under these circumstances, it seems unlikely that any clarification will be forthcoming from official EPO sources.

SarkozySome cynical insiders at the EPO have suggested that before he leaves in June Battistelli should make an effort to put these scurrilous rumours to rest for once and for all by instructing his Investigative Unit to carry out a "whitewash" so that it can be officially established that he had no involvement with the Bygmalion affair and that like his former "padrone" he is the innocent victim of a "smear campaign".

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
 
Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
“Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago
The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
Links for the day
Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
Bing is measured as down this month
Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
Links for the day
How Not to Build Software
code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
GAFAM and "MATA"
The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
I could not help but think of Free software analogies
The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
That issue is now resolved
Flying in 2025
worse than ever before
Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
The clock is ticking
Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025