Anti-corruption police have opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations that French president Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff violated conflict of interest rules while he was a civil servant at the finance ministry.
The inquiry, which is being carried out by the prosecutor’s office for the national financial crime unit, is examining Alexis Kohler’s links to a Swiss–Italian shipping company that is a major client of one of France’s main shipyards.
The transparency campaign group Anticor launched a lawsuit on Friday after the French investigative website Mediapart revealed that Kohler had family links to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), a world leader in container shipping and cruise holidays. Anticor’s complaint accused Kohler of “influence-peddling”.
On Monday, the financial prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had opened an investigation “to verify whether the rules relating to the private-sector activities of public officials have been respected”.
Kohler was at the finance ministry, known in France as Bercy, between 2012 and 2016; the last two years as cabinet director to Macron, who was then the minister. He left the ministry in 2016 when Macron resigned from his post in François Hollande’s Socialist government to concentrate on the presidential election. Kohler then moved to Geneva to take up a position as financial director on MSC’s board.
Kohler’s mother is a cousin of Rafaela Aponte, whose husband Gianlugi founded MSC in 1970. Mediapart has claimed that Kohler hid his family links to MSC from the parliamentary ethics commission.
Mediapart also alleged that after leaving the finance ministry and becoming an executive of MSC in 2016, Kohler took part in at least one ministry meeting to discuss the fate of a STX, a French state-supported shipbuilding company and a major supplier to the Swiss-Italian shipping company, while he was advising Macron’s presidential campaign for free at the same time.
Macron’s office issued a statement on Kohler’s behalf on Monday, in which it said the allegations were “completely unfounded” and based on “totally unfounded suspicions”.
It added that Kohler, 45, would “communicate to prosecutors all documents proving his respect of the law during his professional life”, it said in a statement.
“Mr Kohler would like to point out that he has always kept his superiors informed of the personal links he had with MSC,” it added. “As a result, he has systematically been removed from all deliberation and all decisions relating to this enterprise.”
Kohler, a discreet figure who prefers to remain out of the spotlight, is often portrayed in the French media as the president’s twin brother.
Macron appointed him as the Elysée Palace’s secretary general – or chief of staff – after winning the presidential election in May 2017. He is one of Macron’s most trusted aides and a key player in his ambitious reform programme. Both men are graduates of the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), the hothouse for French public servants.
Under French law, civil servants can take a break from public sector jobs to work in the private sector for a specified number of years. They can then return to public service.
After a preliminary investigation, the prosecutor may decide to drop the case or open an official inquiry.
