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Guinea President Conde says Bollore graft probe is slander

May 04, 2018 at 08:13 am EDT

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinean President Alpha Conde told Reuters on Friday that he would file a complaint in Paris over "slanderous denunciation" in a probe by French authorities into tycoon Vincent Bollore's Africa operations.

Bollore is under formal investigation over allegations that his company Groupe Bollore undercharged for work on behalf of presidential candidates in Guinea and Togo in return for port contracts.

Bollore's lawyer, Olivier Baratelli, has denied any wrongdoing by Bollore.

"I am going to file a complaint for slanderous denunciation, and we have all the evidence proving that I did nothing except defend the interests of Guinea," Conde said in a brief telephone interview.

It was not clear who the complaint would be filed against.

Groupe Bollore, which also denies wrongdoing, has confirmed that its African business interests were being investigated over the billing of work by its communications business Havas Worldwide in Guinea and Togo between 2009 and 2010.

A corruption probe involving a French billionaire is a headache for Conde ahead of presidential elections expected in 2020. Guinea has historically been the most fiercely independent of France's former colonies in Africa -- its independence leader Sekou Toure bucked a trend in the region by rejecting membership of the CFA franc currency zone.

Conde welcomed opposition calls for a parliamentary inquiry into how Bollore obtained the concession to run the main port in Conakry. Opposition lawmakers proposed setting up a commission of inquiry on Wednesday.

"This parliamentary inquiry, if it happens, is going to clarify things," Conde told Reuters.

France's Getma International won the contract in a 2008 tender, beating rivals including Bollore.

Conde took power in 2010 and then cancelled the agreement with Getma in March of the following year. In the same month, Bollore took over the concession.

"Getma had not respected any of its contractual obligations," Conde said.

Guinea's former transport minister Alpha Ibrahima Keira has said that it is standard procedure that if a contract is cancelled, it then goes automatically to the next best bidder, and so this had nothing to do with Havas' communications consultancy work for Conde.

(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Toby Chopra)

By Saliou Samb

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Vincent Marie Claude Bolloré

Vincent Bolloré (born 1952) is a French industrialist, corporate raider and businessman. He serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of investment group Bolloré.

Biography
Early life
Vincent Bolloré was born on 1 April 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt. He attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly before graduating with a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Université Paris X Nanterre.

Career
He started his career as an investment bank trainee at Edmond de Rothschild.

His personal investment career began when he took over the reins at his family-controlled conglomerate Bolloré, which deals in maritime freight and African trade, and paper manufacturing (cigarette and bible paper). The company he leads today employs 33,000 people around the world. He is a well-known corporate raider in France who has succeeded in making money by taking large stakes in French listed companies, in particular the building and construction group Bouygues, where he left with a sizeable capital gain after a power-struggle.

In late 2004, his investment group started building a stake in advertising group Havas, becoming its largest single shareholder. He mounted a coup and replaced Alain de Pouzilhac as Havas Chief Executive Officer on 12 July 2005. In 2005, through his family company, he expanded his media interests by launching the Direct 8 television station. Towards the end of 2005, he began building a stake in independent British media planning and buying group, Aegis. As of 19 July 2006, his stake in Aegis stood at 29%. Direct Soir, a free newspaper, was launched in June 2006. In January 2008, he manifested interest in becoming a shareholder of famed, but troubled, Italian car manufacturer Pininfarina.
The Bolloré Group also has important positions in the economies of several former French colonies in Africa (in particular Ivory Coast, Gabon, Cameroon, and Congo).

Personal Life
He is married, with four children. He is ranked 329th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated fortune of US$4 billion.

Vincent Bolloré is engaged with the French supermodel Vanessa Modely, égérie of Christian Dior and Karl Lagerfeld.

He is a close personal friend of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It has been said that their friendship goes back over 20 years. Sarkozy has been criticized for accepting vacations from Bolloré, as did president Georges Pompidou with Vincent's father, Michel Bolloré. They have both claimed that no conflict of interest exists.

Source @ Wikipedia

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