Benalla case: opening of an investigation into a contract with a Russian oligarch

A security contract signed between the company of Vincent Crase and a Russian oligarch is at the origin of this new investigation.

After the violence of 1^er May and the imbroglio around diplomatic passports, the inextricable Benalla affair takes a new legal turn: the financial prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into a contract signed with a sulphurous Russian oligarch.

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) confirmed Thursday the opening of this investigation revealed by Mediapart, without further comments.
At the same time, Matignon announced to AFP the resignation of the head of the Prime Minister's security group (GSPM), caught in the turmoil of this affair which never stops bouncing.

According to Mediapart, the PNF investigations were opened, on an unspecified date, for "corruption" and relate to a contract signed between Mars, Vincent Crase's company - ex-employee of LREM and reservist gendarme - and the Russian oligarch Iskander Makhmoudov, who would have been "negotiated" by the former adviser to Emmanuel Macron, Alexandre Benalla, "when he was at the Elysée". 

The online newspaper had revealed the existence of this contract on December 17, claiming that Makhmoudov had paid Vincent Crase 294.000 euros on June 28, 2018. The contract, which "provided for the protection of the real estate in France of the businessman, and of his family in Monaco" according to Mediapart, had been under treated at the company Velours, former employer of Benalla. 

At the head of the “Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company” (UGMK), Makhmudov is presented by the Spanish justice system, with which he had trouble, as being part of the Russian criminal organization Izmailovskaïa. 

On January 21, Mr. Crase had affirmed before the Senate to have worked for this Russian oligarch once he left the Elysée, and without the help of Alexandre Benalla, indicted like him for violence against demonstrators on 1^er May 2018. But according to Mediapart, theDiscussions around the contract began "as early as winter 2017" and "accelerated in June" 2018. 

Alexandre Benalla "met several times with the representative of the oligarch in France, the businessman Jean-Louis Haguenauer", writes the site.
"We can imagine possible overcharging of contract which can hide more than security services", commented to AFP the journalist Fabrice Arfi, co-responsible for the investigations of Mediapart. "The concealment by Benalla of his involvement also raises suspicion", he added. 

Lawyers for Benalla and Makhmoudov were unreachable Thursday evening to comment on this information.

Resignation and suspension

This contract was mentioned in a conversation between Benalla and Crase recorded on July 26, excerpts of which were published on July 31. January by Mediapart. The two men then planned to put in place a new financial arrangement for the contract. 

"A discreet company, France Close Protection, was born on October 16", says Mediapart, specifying that it is directed by "a former soldier who worked on the contract for Velours". She would have employed Mr. Benalla from November. 

The revelation of this recording sparked a new twist in the case, resulting in the resignation on Thursday of the head of the Prime Minister's security group (GSPM), Marie-Elodie Poitout, in order to "dismiss any controversy". 

After the publication of the sound clips by Mediapart, journalists have indeed tried to check with Matignon rumors that this conversation had been recorded at the latter's home. 

Wednesday, M.atignon had confirmed having informed the Paris prosecutor's office by mail of these rumors on 1^er FEBRUARY. In this letter obtained by AFP, the services of the Prime Minister explained that they had questioned the head of the GSPM about this meeting.

She then explained that she met Alexandre Benalla at the end of July, with his companion Chokri Wakrim, at their home, but assured that she did not know Mr. Crase. 

According to a source familiar with the matter, it was on the basis of this letter that the prosecution opened an investigation this weekend and attempted on Monday to search the premises of Mediapart, to obtain the recordings, an initiative strongly denounced by the news site, several media and the opposition as an attack on the secrecy of journalists' sources.

The military Chokri Wakrim, was suspended Wednesday by the Ministry of the Armed Forces "while waiting for the light to be shed on these allegations", learned AFP. Companion of the head of the Prime Minister's security group, herself implicated in this affair, "Chokri Wakrim was summoned today by the Ministry of the Armed Forces and suspended as a precaution from his duties, with immediate effect, while waiting for light to be shed on these allegations" published about him in Liberation, the ministry told AFP. 

source: Sudouest.fr

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