The former Minister of the Interior of Nicolas Sarkozy was incarcerated in the prison of La Santé, this Monday, as part of the case of cash bonuses of the Ministry of the Interior.
Obviously, it does not look good. Nicolas Sarkozy’s former Minister of the Interior, Claude Guéant, 76 years old, has been thrown into prison like a common thief. This high ranking official gravitating in the upper echelons of power has been implicated in numerous political and economic affairs. He is under investigation for “laundering of tax fraud in an organized gang”, “forgery and use”, “illegal financing of an electoral campaign”, “embezzlement of public funds” and “passive corruption” and “criminal association” as part of the investigation into the Sarkozy-Kadhafi case. Excuse me.
But what has earned him the right to be thrown into a cesspool today is the affair of the cash bonuses.

Sentenced to pay back the state

The case dates back to 2013. At that time, the police are investigating the financing of the election campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. By looking closely at the accounts of Claude Guéant they discover that the latter would have taken for his personal account, large sums of cash reserved for “investigation costs and surveillance of the police” (FES). A total of 210,000 euros! He would have redistributed some of it to several of his close collaborators.
When questioned, Guéant claimed that the money came from the secret funds of the ministry. This is impossible because they were abolished in 2002 by Lionel Jospin.
In the first instance, the former right-hand man of Sarkozy was sentenced to two years in prison suspended and 75,000 € fine. But on appeal, in January 2017, he was sentenced to two years in prison, one of which was firm for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds and concealment” and €75,000 fine. In addition, the court of appeal ordered him to repay, jointly with the other defendants, €210,000 in damages to the state. Claude Guéant filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which was rejected in 2019.

Debt repayment too slow

In early November 2021, the Paris prosecutor’s office found that Claude Guéant was not repaying his debt fast enough. In the aftermath, the chamber of enforcement of sentences revoked six months of parole and three months of suspended sentence of Claude Guéant. This amounts to a sentence of nine months in prison immediately enforceable.
A shame for the former boss of the French cops. And a warning to all the hooligans of the Republic!

But who is Claude Guéant ?

The portrait that journalist Francis Christophe paints of the former Secretary General of the Elysée (1) is the opposite of the image that this great clerk of the State would like to give. His name, involved in some pretty scandals, is regularly in the news.

One would give him the Good God without confession. With his smooth face, the wise hairstyle of a first-grader, and his measured speech, Claude Guéant is the archetype of the exemplary prefect. After graduating from ENA in 1971, he climbed the political and administrative ladder until he became Secretary General of the Elysée Palace and Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-hand man in 2007. Then Minister of the Interior.
But what secrets does this shadowy man hide, whose name is now associated with major political scandals? From the affair of the financing of Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007 to the Tapie/Crédit Lyonnais affair, through the cash bonuses of the cabinet, to the Elysée polls, to the sale of paintings by a small Flemish painter to the affair of the wiretapping of a competitor in the legislative elections, Claude Guéant has been indicted several times. He was sentenced in the first instance, in the case of cash bonuses, by the TGI of Paris for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds and concealment” to two years in prison suspended and 75,000 € fine. This was on November 13, 2015. If the press did not talk much about it is that, on that day, another news will chase all others: the terrorist attacks in Paris will make 130 dead and more than 400 injured.

“The legend of suicide

Francis Christophe, who was a journalist at the AFP for thirteen years and author of several investigative works including Boulin, le fantôme de la 5ème République (OWNI), retraces in his book Claude Guéant un préfet en eaux troubles, the rise of this enarque from a modest background. And he dwells on the many pots and pans that now stick to his skin.
We are far from the smooth image of the great clerk of the State, the exemplary prefect, the honest director general of the national police, the irreproachable secretary general of the Elysée, the honest minister.
To investigate Claude Guéant is “to dive into the mysteries of the Fifth Republic” writes the author. It is also to follow an ascent whose roots converge on one of the most mysterious political affairs of the post-war period, the death of Minister Robert Boulin, found “drowned” on October 30, 1979 in the forest of Rambouillet. It is to lift the veil on the deep state, that of the shadowy networks that replace the rule of law as soon as ‘higher necessities’ command it.
In the Boulin affair, we know that the death of the Minister of Labor was known in high places several hours before the body was discovered at 8:40 am. However, the Minister of the Interior Christian Bonnet “confirmed in 2011 that he was awakened that night by his chief of staff, Jean Paolini” writes Francis Christophe who continues: “According to a well-informed source, the permanent place Beauvau who made wake up, via Jean Paolini, his Minister of the Interior, would be the sub-prefect Claude Guéant, adviser to the cabinet of the minister, in charge according to the words of Christian Bonnet, security issues.”
Questioned by the author of the book, Claude Guéant denies having been on duty that night. But he admits to having been informed of the discovery of Robert Boulin’s body “before 8:45 a.m.”… This undermines the official version, “the legend of suicide” ….

M.G.