The Paris Criminal Court on Tuesday cleared Orange chief executive Stéphane Richard of any wrongdoing in a long-running case alleging fraud and misuse of public funds by businessman Bernard Tapie.
Prosecutors had sought five years in prison for Mr Tapie, but he and four other defendants were also acquitted on Tuesday.
The acquittal of Mr Richard, on trial for complicity in fraud, secures his position at the head of France’s largest telecoms group. In April, French state prosecutors had called for a three-year jail term for Mr Richard, as well as a €100,000 fine and a five-year ban on any work for the state, which has a 13.4 per cent stake in Orange and is its largest shareholder.
“Employees are relieved to know that we can keep our boss Stéphane Richard at the head of Orange,” Sébastien Crozier, president of the union CFE-CGC Orange, told the Financial Times. “This will allow Mr Richard to focus on the future of Orange and the challenges ahead, including fibre, 5G, the group’s digital strategy, the Orange bank, and cyber security.”
In a statement to Orange’s employees, Mr Richard said that he welcomed the judgment with “deep satisfaction” and said that he had not ceased “to say forcefully that I was a stranger to any fraudulent scheme”. He added: “I am obviously happy that my innocence has finally been recognised by the courts.”
The trial relates to a €403m payout to Mr Tapie made by the French state in 2008 when Mr Richard was chief of staff for Christine Lagarde, then finance minister. Ms Lagarde last week announced she would step down as head of the International Monetary Fund after she was nominated to succeed Mario Draghi at the helm of the European Central Bank.
Mr Richard was alleged to have misinformed and disobeyed Ms Lagarde, but consistently denied all the charges against him. Ms Lagarde was found guilty in 2016 of negligence in public office.
Mr Tapie said he had been defrauded by Crédit Lyonnais, the now defunct state-owned bank, when it encouraged him to sell his stake in sports equipment group Adidas for less than it was worth in 1993.
Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, the state agreed to settle with Mr Tapie through arbitration, but the resulting €403m payment was criticised as a covert reward for Mr Tapie’s support of Mr Sarkozy during his election campaign. A Paris court later annulled the arbitration decision and ordered Mr Tapie to repay the money.
