French judicial authorities have charged the president of Paris Saint-Germain football club, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, with complicity in abuse of power concerning shareholder voting at a company, a source close to the case said Thursday.
Al-Khelaifi was charged on February 5 with complicity in the alleged buying of a vote and harming of freedom to vote over a switch in the voting of a Qatari investment fund on the board of the Lagardere Group in 2018, a judicial source added, with both sources asking not to be named.
The PSG chief, who has led the record 12-times French Ligue 1 champions since its 2011 takeover by Qatar Sports Investments with the dream of making the team Europe’s best, has faced several legal cases in recent years but always denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which manages the assets of the gas-rich emirate, said it “unequivocally rejects any allegation of improper conduct” by Al-Khelaifi or the Qatari fund.
“Mr Al-Khelaifi had no substantive role in this matter nor made any decisions in this regard,” the spokesperson said, adding such “day-to-day matters” are handled by executives rather than board members.
“Accordingly, Nasser Al-Khelaifi was not in a position to influence, or to take any action on behalf of QIA, involving the company Lagardere,” said the spokesperson.
‘Limited role’
Lagardere Group chief Arnaud Lagardere is suspected of having fraudulently used some 125 million euros ($129 million at today’s rates) of funds from the group for several years to fund his personal expenses.
The case against Al-Khelaifi, who is known in France as “NAK”, concerns a time in 2018 when there was a power struggle on the board between billionaire right-wing tycoon Vincent Bollore, who was allied to the Amber Capital investment fund, and France’s richest man Bernard Arnault the boss of the LVMH luxury goods firm who supported Arnaud Lagardere.
On April 24, 2018, Qatar Holding LLC, a subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and at that time main shareholder of Lagardere Group, had positioned itself in favour of the resolutions of Amber Capital.
Arnaud Lagardere and his aides are accused of calling their contacts, including Al-Khelaifi in his capacity as a director of the QIA.
Five days after the first vote, the QIA changed its position and voted in favour of the resolutions put forward by Arnaud Lagardere.
In September 2018, a British-Moroccan UN diplomat close to Doha, Jamal Benomar, was appointed as an independent member on the board of Lagardere.
Arnaud Lagardere insisted in his questioning the former UN special envoy to Yemen was appointed for his qualities. But the judges saw his appointment as an “unofficial representation” of Qatar’s interests on the board and suspected a quid-pro-quo towards Qatar on the part of Lagardere.
Summoned by investigating magistrates on February 5, Al-Khelaifi declared he was “surprised” to have been made to appear and played down his connection to the shareholder issue, according to a source close to the case who reported his comments.
“I had no influence in this case. I find myself in the middle of a case to which I have no connection whatsoever, all on the basis of a single telephone communication concerning a problem with Qatar, a question I had to pass on, and my role was limited to that,” he said.
‘Famous name’
The Lagardere Group was bought after a bitter battle at the end of November 2023 by media and publishing giant Vivendi, controlled by the family of Bollore.
A previous indictment against Al-Khelaifi for alleged corruption over Qatar’s bids for the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships was definitively annulled in mid-February 2023 by France’s Court of Cassation, which ruled the French justice system was incompetent to prosecute him.
Parisian investigating magistrates are also probing Al-Khelaifi over accusations of the alleged kidnapping and sequestration in Qatar of Franco-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane.
Al-Khelaifi denies the accusations and has himself filed a complaint.
A source close to the Qatari said the latest case concerning Lagardere “has absolutely and emphatically nothing to do with Nasser Al-Khelaifi.”
“But as usual he will get dragged through a completely spurious process as a famous name, who is apparently responsible for anything and everything, until everything quietly disappears without any grounds whatsoever in a few years,” the source added, asking not to be named.
