07-03-2025
A Former French Intelligence Chief Was Just Convicted for Spying on Bernard Arnault Blackmailers and Critics
No, this isn't an old Billions plot line.
On Friday, France's former head of domestic intelligence agency was convicted in Paris for acting outside his authority and misusing public resources to help luxury conglomerate LVMH trace extortionists who allegedly targeted the company's CEO, Bernard Arnault, over 10 years ago. Bernard Squarcini was also found guilty of partaking in unlawful surveillance of an Arnault critic while working as a security consultant for LVMH after he left the spy agency, Bloomberg reported.
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At the trial, judge Benjamin Blanchet said Squarcini 'deliberately chose to break the law for financial gain.' The 69-year-old has been sentenced to a two-year jail term, which he can carry out outside of prison with an electronic bracelet. The Paris criminal court also fined the former head of the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur a total of $706,300 (€651,500), according to the publication.
As for Arnault, neither he nor his company were charged in the case. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE had previously settled with prosecutors back in 2021; as part of the agreement, the conglomerate had to pay about $10.9 million (€10 million) with no admission of guilt, Bloomberg reported.
Arnault denied know anything about an extortion stunt against him involving an alleged extramarital affair, saying in a November testimony that he only discovered the plot in the press years later, Bloomberg reported at the time. Arbault calling the blackmail ordeal 'wacky' on the stand, and said it would have been 'perfectly normal' for his late top aid Pierre Godé to handle security matters without consulting him, according to the publication. The reported swindler, a paparazzo who was allegedly seeking about $325,000 (€300,000) for images of the supposed affair, was never found, Arnault said, and the photos were never published.
Due to his position as head of France's domestic intelligence agency at the time, Squarcini claimed it was within his jurisdiction to investigate the 2008 blackmail attempt, he said at the trial. The security consultant will appeal the verdict, said one of his lawyers, Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard.
Squarcini's unlawful surveillance conviction reportedly involved spying on the activities of François Ruffin, a left-wing filmmaker. Ruffin, who has since entered politics, released Merci Patron! in 2016, a documentary that criticized LVMH.
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