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The former French spy chief has been sentenced to two prisons after being convicted of charges related to influence and spying, including while working for the luxury group LVMH.
Bernard Squarcini’s beliefs came after a complicated investigation that took over a decade. It included events that occurred while heading the French intelligence agency between 2008 and 2012 and working as a private security contractor for LVMH, managed by billionaire Bernard Arneau between 2013 and 2016.
Squarcini’s lawyers said they opposed the decision. LVMH, the world’s most valuable luxury group with a market capitalization of 349 billion euros, paid 10 million euros in 2021 to resolve allegations they faced in the case without any fraudulent conduct.
However, Arnaud was called to appear as a witness at the November trial.
Squarcini – known as “Le Square,” or The Shark – was convicted on Friday of crimes including peddling the impact, covering up professional secret violations, applying national defense secrets, and forgery of public documents.
Part of the accusations were about elaborate schemes that spy on journalist-turned-MP François Ruffin and his activist group Fakir, who had produced a documentary about LVMH and its boss.
The other is said to have dispatched an Intelligence Reporting Agency in 2008 to discover a man who wanted to blackmail Arnaud. Another section used Squarcini to access sensitive information about LVMH investigations in 2010 because it did not properly disclose stake buildings at rival Hermes.
Hermes ultimately dodged the attempted acquisition, and LVMH was fined 8 million euros in 2013 by a financial prosecutor.
Squarcini, 69, was also fined 200,000 euros and banned from working with “intellectuality, surveillance, advice, economic intelligence” for five years. He is not expected to spend time in prison and sentences him to two years under electronic surveillance at home.
Squarcini’s decision primarily reflected the penalty sought by the prosecutor at the start of the trial.
In nearly three hours of testimony during the weeks-long trial at the end of last year, Arnaud said he had no knowledge of Scarcini and his collaborators’ attempts to infiltrate and spy on Ruffin’s organization.
Arnaud also said he delegated these issues to deputy commander Pierre Godet, who passed away in 2018.
“Godet had my responsibility perfectly equally. It’s not to me to judge what Mr. Goddet did or did because I didn’t know,” he said. “I have a manager who handles everything and I don’t have to do the job twice.”
The former spy boss was tested alongside nine other individuals, many of whom were also tested by former police and officials from the Intelligence Bureau.
Laurent Marcadier, former security chief and former magistrate of LVMH, was acquitted, just like police chief Pierre Lieutaud. Seven other defendants were sentenced to six months to three years in addition to the fines, some of which were suspended.
