SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
France's Thales charged over 2002 submarines deal with Malaysia
Paris, April 26 (AFP) Apr 26, 2022
A French judge has charged the defence group Thales with complicity in bribery over a 2002 sale of submarines to Malaysia, sources close to the inquiry told AFP on Tuesday.

The long-running case into alleged kickbacks was opened in 2010 and eventually caught up the former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

Najib was defence minister when the deal was signed to buy two Scorpene-class submarines and one Agosta submarine from French naval dockyards unit DCN, now part of Thales, in a deal worth $1.2 billion.

Najib's associate Abdul Razak Baginda acted as an adviser on the deal, and he is accused of disguising the kickback of more than 114 million euros ($121 million at the present-day exchange rate) as "consulting work" by a firm in which he was the largest shareholder.

The money was then allegedly given to Najib, who has faced a series of graft cases since he was voted out as Malaysia's prime minister in 2018.

Razak Baginda was charged in France in 2017, while Najib has been questioned by Malaysian anti-graft investigators.

In total nine defendants, including Thales, have been charged in France and the investigations were closed in January 2022, the sources said.

They also include Philippe Japiot, former chairman of the French naval dockyards unit DCN International, and Jean-Paul Perrier, a former Thales chief executive, along with two other former executives.

All four deny any wrongdoing and the Malaysian government has said the contract was free of corruption.

Contacted by AFP, Thales said "it strongly contests these allegations."

Prosecutors from France's PNF financial crimes office will now consider any further requests to the judge, who will have a final say on whether the case goes to trial, though an appeal was already filed in May 2021.

gd-mra/js/tgb/pvh

THALES

NAVAL GROUP


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
EU clears European satellite giant SES bid for US rival Intelsat
Aethero Secures $8.4M to Build the Next Generation of Space-Based Computing and Autonomous Spacecraft
Axiom-4 mission launch scrubbed as SpaceX detects leak in Falcon 9 rocket

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Scientists develop electronic skin to give robots the feeling of human touch
Nairobi startup's bid to be 'operating system for global South'
Russia to build Kazakhstan's first nuclear power plant

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Hegseth defends $961.6B Defense Department budget request
Iran's nuclear programme, Netanyahu's age-old obsession
Israel, Iran resume missile exchange, threaten more attacks

24/7 News Coverage
Nations advance ocean protection, vow to defend seabed
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave: scientists
Value oceans, don't plunder them, French Polynesia leader tells AFP



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.