Former Orange CEO Stéphane Richard Knows His Fate: Latest Twist in the Tapie Affair?

This is likely the latest twist in the Tapie affair. The Paris Court of Appeal will rule on the fate of former Orange CEO Stéphane Richard on Monday afternoon, June 30, in the case of the controversial 2008 award between Bernard Tapie and Crédit Lyonnais.

In November 2021 , Stéphane Richard and three other defendants were given a one-year suspended prison sentence and a €50,000 fine for complicity in embezzlement of public funds. But in June 2023 , the Court of Cassation partially overturned the decision and ordered a new trial for him and for senior civil servant Jean-François Rocchi, former head of the Consortium de Réalisation (CDR), the entity responsible for managing Crédit Lyonnais' liabilities.

As a reminder, this case stems from the conflict between Bernard Tapie, who died in 2021 , and Crédit Lyonnais over the acquisition of German equipment manufacturer Adidas in the 1990s. A private arbitration ruled in favor of Bernard Tapie in 2008 and awarded him more than €400 million. But this controversial award was later overturned in a civil case for "fraud" in 2015, and the former minister was ordered to pay back the money.

Six men, including the former head of Olympique de Marseille, suspected of having "rigged" the arbitration, were tried but acquitted at first instance. On appeal in 2021, the court ruled in the opposite direction, considering that the arbitration had indeed been biased to "make the Tapie side triumph ". The Court of Cassation then definitively validated the convictions for fraud of Bernard Tapie's long-time lawyer, Maurice Lantourne, and of one of the three arbitrators who had written the sentence, Pierre Estoup, as well as the acquittal of a civil servant.

In this case, Christine Lagarde, then Minister of the Economy, was found guilty of "negligence" but exempted from punishment in 2016 by the Court of Justice of the Republic – the only body empowered to try ministers for acts committed in office. Stéphane Richard is therefore implicated because he was the minister's chief of staff at the time. Concerning him, the Court of Cassation noted that he could not be convicted of complicity in the misappropriation of public funds, since the Court of Appeal had, in its decision, recognized that he "was unaware of the fraudulent nature of the arbitration." The high court therefore ordered a new trial.