Last week, a Maltese politician dropped a bombshell into the investigation of allegations of kickbacks in the sale of French submarines to Malaysia, saying French prosecutors were on the trail of a soft-spoken Frenchman named Jean-Marie Boivin and his Malta-based company, Gifen.
Boivin, according to a plethora of news stories in France and Luxembourg, is at the heart of a scandal that stretches across half the earth to Pakistan, Taiwan, Malaysia, India and untold numbers of other countries whose defense ministries bought armaments from the French defense giant DCNS around the turn of the century. At least three of those sales have been dogged with stories of bribery and the murder or unexplained deaths of 19 people. According to other revelations, the sale of submarines to India is also suspected of “non-compliance” with the OECD Convention on Bribery.
Paris Match reported on Nov. 24, 2010, in a story titled Boivin, Celui Qui Fait Trembler le Republique (Boivin, the Man Who Shakes the Republic), that Boivin was “at the head of a myriad companies in tax havens.” Other news media reported that “outlandish commissions” travelled through what were described as a galaxy of companies, including gifts to the former security chief of onetime Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet for the sale of two submarines to Chile.
According to the news stories, Boivin, described as “a quiet man, even mysterious, multilingual, with a quite surprising international network of relationships,” operates in the very top European circles. He accompanied the Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg on a state visit to Brazil two years ago. Other reports say he was a friend of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and former Minister of the Interior Michel Wolter, inviting them on a South African safari at DCN expense. Full story...
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Boivin, according to a plethora of news stories in France and Luxembourg, is at the heart of a scandal that stretches across half the earth to Pakistan, Taiwan, Malaysia, India and untold numbers of other countries whose defense ministries bought armaments from the French defense giant DCNS around the turn of the century. At least three of those sales have been dogged with stories of bribery and the murder or unexplained deaths of 19 people. According to other revelations, the sale of submarines to India is also suspected of “non-compliance” with the OECD Convention on Bribery.
Paris Match reported on Nov. 24, 2010, in a story titled Boivin, Celui Qui Fait Trembler le Republique (Boivin, the Man Who Shakes the Republic), that Boivin was “at the head of a myriad companies in tax havens.” Other news media reported that “outlandish commissions” travelled through what were described as a galaxy of companies, including gifts to the former security chief of onetime Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet for the sale of two submarines to Chile.
According to the news stories, Boivin, described as “a quiet man, even mysterious, multilingual, with a quite surprising international network of relationships,” operates in the very top European circles. He accompanied the Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg on a state visit to Brazil two years ago. Other reports say he was a friend of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and former Minister of the Interior Michel Wolter, inviting them on a South African safari at DCN expense. Full story...
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