CHIRAC AIDE GUILTY IN £50M KICKBACK SCANDAL

PARIS October 27, 2005 (Guardian) - Jacques Chirac's former chief of staff has been found guilty in one of France's biggest corruption trials.

Michel Roussin, 66, was given a four-year suspended sentence and a €50,000 (£35,000) fine for his involvement in a €70m kickback scheme at Paris City Hall when Mr Chirac was mayor. Illegal funds were given to politicians in exchange for contracts to build or repair schools between 1989 and 1995, when Mr Chirac became president.

EX-MINISTERS SENTENCED IN FRENCH CORRUPTION TRIAL

PARIS October 28, 2005 (AFP) - Forty-three defendants -- including politicians, party officials and representatives of some of France's biggest building companies -- were found guilty by a Paris court, bringing to an end four months of proceedings.

Michel Roussin, 66, who for many years served as Chirac's cabinet director at Paris city hall and was cooperation minister from 1993 to 1995, was handed a four-year suspended sentence and fined 50,000 euros (60,000 dollars) for his role in the scheme.

A former president of the Ile-de-France regional council and labour minister, Michel Giraud, 76, also received a four-year suspended sentence as well as a 80,000-euro fine.

The former sports minister Guy Drut, 54, who now sits on the International Olympic Committee, was handed a 15-month suspended sentence and fined 50,000 euros for creating a bogus job as part of the scheme.

Louise-Yvonne Casetta, 62, a former RPR treasurer, was given a 20-month suspended sentence and fined 10,000 euros.

The former Socialist Party (PS) treasurer Gerard Peybernes, the only figure from the left-wing party to stand trial, was handed a 15-month suspended sentence and fined 8,000 euros.

Of [the kickback] money, more than half went to Chirac's RPR and its ally the Republican party (PR), and the rest went to the Socialists. The RPR and PR have since been assimilated into the Union for a Popular Movement, France's ruling conservative party. ... All of France's major political parties have been found guilty of illegal funding scams from the 1980s and early 1990s, but since then public financing has been introduced and the succession of scandals has dried up.

The country's slow justice system has meant that the cases are only now coming to court.

The elephant in the room remains not simply unindictable but unquestionable during his tenure as the elephant. The French shrug, "Ce sont tous des magouilleurs." And we see their point. What is the good of questioning Supermenteur for the truth? "Je ne suis pas un voleur, je suis président de la Republique..." Plus de supermensonges.

When we comment on French corruption, one or two franchouilles will post their umbrageous tu quoques, we suppose in the fond belief that American practices, not French ethics, are an excuse for bad French government. We do not pretend American politicos are saints, but there are significant differences between political graft in America and political graft in France.

1. The American public does not condone political graft. The French public accepts graft as the way things are done in government.

2. America has an independent, aggressive, critical, and punishing press. Sectors of the French press are subsidized by the government and not surprisingly report the government view as the news.

3. In America, a charge of graft is a heavy club wielded by the opposition party. In France, there is a thieves agreement among the parties not to make a fuss.

4. When caught, American politicos tend to apologize, resign, and disappear. French politicos, when caught, protest their innocence until their dying day, blame everyone else, argue they are blameless little fish, and demand their full pensions.

Now, imagine that. Jack apologizing and resigning and disappearing from the public arena. Yes, well, neither can we.

* Not to be confused with French "handy" justice.

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