In a case that has exposed the secretive financial dealings of France's foreign intelligence service, former director Bernard Bajolet stands accused of plotting to coerce a businessman into handing over millions of euros that the spy agency claims it is owed from investments.
Bajolet is alleged to have instructed agents working for the DGSE, which he led from 2013 to 2017, to pressure entrepreneur Alain Duménil, with whom the agency was engaged in a lengthy dispute.
Duménil claims he was detained at a Paris airport as he prepared to board a flight and threatened with harm to himself and his family unless he handed over 15 million euros, an account the DGSE contests.
Now a judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Bajolet for complicity in attempted extortion over the 2016 incident, according to a ruling seen on Tuesday by the news agency AFP.
It orders him to appear in criminal court outside Paris, where he will face the charge of "arbitrary infringement of individual liberty as a holder of public authority".
Shadowy fortune
The case has provided a rare glimpse into the financial interests of the DGSE, which is entrusted with managing a war chest designed to secure the state in the event of a national emergency.
Seeded by the damages paid to France after World War I, the capital was kept separate from the agency's operational budget and placed in investments that helped it grow substantially over the decades.
But by the turn of the century, with little external oversight to monitor them, the DGSE's investments had turned risky and were losing it considerable sums, according to an investigation by Le Monde.
Seeking to extricate itself from loss-making companies and recover its funds, the service entered into a deal to exchange shares with Duménil in the early 2000s.
But the French-Swiss businessman – who has since been sanctioned for tax fraud and other wrongdoing – promptly transferred the remaining assets and liquidated their holding companies, leaving the DGSE with now worthless shares.
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'You robbed the government'
The agency pursued the case in the courts for over a decade, but failed to recoup a loss it estimates at some 15 million euros.
In March 2016, Duménil alleges, the DGSE resorted to shadier means.
According to statements to investigators seen by Le Monde, he claims he was stopped by border police at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and handed over to two plain-clothes DGSE agents.
"'You robbed the government of 13 million, which today makes 15 million with interest'," Duménil said one of the agents told him. "'You have to give it back to us'... He was very threatening, talking about me ending up in a wheelchair or worse."
The businessman says the agents also showed him pictures of his family and friends: "They wanted to make me understand that they could also go after any of these people."
Spy agency on trial
Duménil was allowed to leave and subsequently filed a complaint, which has been dismissed several times but allowed to stand on appeal.
While the identity of the DGSE agents remains classified, director Bajolet was indicted in late 2022 for allegedly ordering their actions.
A career diplomat, he acknowledges approving the plan to intercept Duménil at the airport, but told investigators he did not give detailed instructions and hoped only to revive discussions between each side's lawyers.
The DGSE denies Duménil was ever detained or threatened. It has not commented on the latest developments in the case.
Bajolet's trial, for which a date has not yet been set, threatens to bring the agency further scrutiny.
After the judge's ruling on 23 October, Duménil's lawyers William Bourdon and Nicolas Huc-Morel said in a statement: "Beyond the trial of Bernard Bajolet, this will be the trial of the DGSE and the twisting of its work to private ends."
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