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The prospect of a trial is becoming clearer for Rachida Dati. Parisian investigating judges ordered the dismissal of the Minister of Culture to justice in the Carlos Ghosn case, alongside the former boss of Renault, we learned on Tuesday 22 July. It is returned for “passive corruption and trafficking in influence” and “concealment of abuse of power and confidence”. Franceinfo explains this file to you, the trial of which could affect the potential candidacy of Rachida Dati at the Paris City Hall in 2026.
A complaint from a Renault shareholder behind the case
It all starts after the arrest of the former Renault-Nissan boss, Carlos Ghosn, in Tokyo, in November 2018, for accusations of financial embezzlement. The Renault-Nissan alliance, based in the Netherlands, then undertakes to examine the payments made in the past to French external advisers, and launches an independent audit. It is in this context that a minority shareholder of Renault files a complaint against Carlos Ghosn, Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer. According to her lawyer, Jean-Paul Baduel, the complainant then wonders about “The reckless use of Renault funds” in certain contracts concluded by the company, “Doubtious by their amounts”.
An investigation is opened in 2019 by the National Financial Public Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “corporate goods” and “corruption”. The opening of a judicial investigation follows, entrusted to two investigating judges. Rachida Dati, first under the status of assisted witness, was indicted in 2021 for “corruption” and “passive influence traffic by person invested with a public elective mandate”, after more than nine hours of hearing.
A 900,000 euros contract at the heart of investigations
The Parisian judges have in their viewfinder a contract signed on October 28, 2009 between Rachida Dati and RNBV, a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The Minister, then a lawyer and the European deputy, is suspected of having perceived, “in all confidentiality, even in all opacity” According to the survey, 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 for consulting services that she would not really have done.
In his indictment to request a trial, rendered in November 2024 and consulted by AFP, the PNF considers that this contract “was the legal dressing of a patent corrupting pact”. “The many investigations” made “did not identify very little evidence of the existence and reality of the services provided by Madame Dati” in terms of legal advice, “Whether it is material evidence (reports, emails, notes) or testimonial (hearings, certificates)”Is it written in this 134-page document, signed by the financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert and two financial magistrates.
During her four hearings, Rachida Dati, she argued having worked. During her interrogation in July 2021, to which the Radio France investigation cell had access, she sought to convince the judges she had helped the Renault-Nissan group to develop in the Middle East and the Maghreb. The lawyer notably ensured that she had been the spearhead of the opening of the largest automotive factory in Africa, in Tangier, Morocco, in 2012. “We had to find a legal framework which remains favorable to Renault-Nissan, because there was the financial crisis and the beginning of the Arab Spring”she argued. According to the Minister, the financial “Go” of the Moroccan authorities would have been acquired thanks to her, in the fall of 2010.
Its version is weakened, even denied, by several testimonies collected by Radio France. “In 2010, everything was already put together”For example, a lawyer for the pool of experienced jurists who assisted Renault-Nissan in negotiations with Morocco. For his part, Carlos Ghosn defended Rachida Dati, presenting her as a “Consultant” in the group’s international expansion policy and repeatedly evoking “Business diplomacy”.
Rachida Dati suspected of lobbying in the European Parliament
The judges suspect Rachida Dati of having actually received these 900,000 euros in fees in return for lobbying actions on behalf of the French manufacturer in the European Parliament. If European deputies have the right to exercise the profession of lawyer, they are however forbidden to lobby. For the magistrates of the PNF, the former Minister of Justice of Nicolas Sarkozy A “advised the Renault group in promoting its rights and interests to the European Parliament”. She would have “Taken in favor of favorable positions” to the manufacturer and “worn out of its real or supposed influence to carry out lobbying actions”. AND “Never” the European Parliament has not been informed of its “Lucrative private activities” With the diamond brand.
According to the Radio France investigation cell, a search carried out at the manufacturer’s headquarters made it possible to discover a pocket stamped “RD”, with a roadmap listing European subjects on which the lawyer could bend, such as the new regulations on vehicles without a license. During her first European mandate, Rachida Dati asked two written questions to the Commission which may appear to be in line with Renault expectations, notes our colleagues. Moon, in July 2012concerns the regulations in preparation on the noise level of vehicles. The other, in October of the same yearconcerns the market for clean vehicles.
Questioned by the judges, Rachida Dati denied having sought to influence the Parliament on the issue of electric vehicles. Again, Carlos Ghosn comforted the Minister of Culture assuring that he had never asked her to influence European laws, reports the Radio France investigation unit.
The minister and her lawyers are increasing the appeals
Since its questioning, Rachida Dati, surrounded by its multiple lawyers, has struggled to try to cancel the procedure. From 2019, according to The worldRachida Dati writes a letter to Eliane Houlette, then patron saint of the PNF, in which she says she learned that the complainant at the origin of the case was in reality the wife of a lawyer himself shareholder of Renault. She therefore asks that the complaint be “classified”Seeing a “handling”. Justice has since declared inadmissible the constitution of civil party of the complainant shareholder.
Rachida Dati also attacks those who issue doubts about the reality of the work she would have done for the Renault-Nissan alliance. This is the case of Jean-Dominique Senard, current president of Renault, that the minister accuses of “omission to testify in favor of an innocent” to have “Hidden and has essential documents of essential documents hide” to innocent it. In early January, the minister finally renounced to cite him.
But with her lawyers, the minister continues, on the other hand, to fight to try to demonstrate that the facts are prescribed. While the Paris Court of Appeal rejected, on June 26, its appeal against the PNF indictment requesting a trial, the minister filed a new appeal to the Court of Cassation in early July. Reason: the absence in the file of a “Determining piece”A paraphonic version of the fee agreement linking it to the automotive group, which was presented during a hearing of Carlos Ghosn in Lebanon. “Indeed, if the fee agreement has been initialed, it means (…) that the lawyer’s mission was signed in view of everyone at Renault”Esides one of his lawyers, Olivier Baratelli, at AFP. A crucial nuance, which would begin the limitation period, which runs for three years, in 2009, date of the signature, rather than 2019, the supposed date of the discovery of the corruption pact.
“This is the legitimate request to find a disappeared piece”insists Olivier Baratelli. But also a new approach in addition to the requests and recourse which have considerably extended this procedure, while the investigations have been closed since September 2023 in this file. Rachida Dati, as well as Carlos Ghosn, are summoned at the end of September before the criminal court to know the dates of their trial. According to a source close to the file cited by AFP, the trial could be held after the municipal elections, for which Rachida Dati should apply for Paris.
