Suspected of corruption, the French arms group Thales raided in several European countries

Le groupe français d’armement Thales est soupçonné de corruption. MAXPPP – Bruno Levesque

Cette semaine, plusieurs perquisitions ont été menées dans plusieurs sites européens du groupe français d’armement Thales, qui est soupçonné de corruption.

The French arms group Thales was raided this week in France, the Netherlands and Spain as part of investigations into suspicions of corruption linked to sales of ;rsquo;military equipment abroad, notably in Brazil, AFP learned on Saturday from a judicial source.

Suspicions of corruption

Confirming BFMTV, this source specified that searches were carried out from Wednesday to Friday at the headquarters of different companies of the Thalès group in these three countries, as part of two preliminary investigations by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for suspicion of corruption of ;foreign public agent in particular.According to this source, these searches "take place within the framework of two preliminary investigations".

"The first opened at the end of 2016, in particular counts of corruption of a foreign public official, private corruption, criminal conspiracy and laundering of these offenses, covers on the sale of submarines and the construction of a naval base in Brazil", said the judicial source.

"The second will open in June 2023, including counts of corruption and influence peddling by foreign public officials, private corruption, criminal conspiracy , money laundering and concealment of these offenses, concerns various operations of sale of military and civilian equipment abroad", she added.

The operations "were carried out by 65 investigators from OCLCIFF (Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses, Editor's note) , 12 magistrates from the PNF (National Financial Prosecutor's Office), with the collaboration of the Dutch and Spanish judicial authorities, and the coordination of Eurojust", the judicial agency European, according to this judicial source, according to whom the "investigations are continuing".