Dismissal in the case of relations between former minister Sylvie Goulard and an American institute

Two investigating judges from the Paris court have ordered a dismissal of the judicial investigation that had been opened into the role of Sylvie Goulard , a former minister who worked at the Bank of France, as a consultant to the American Berggruen Institute , we learned on Tuesday from sources close to the case and the judiciary.

The dismissal order was issued on December 23, according to the judicial source, three months after the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) filed a request to that effect. Sylvie Goulard, a MoDem MEP from 2009 to 2017, declined to comment. Placed under assisted witness status on April 4, 2024, she could not be referred to the criminal court.

A judicial investigation was opened in 2022 following a complaint with civil action by the Anticor association for passive corruption, passive influence peddling, illegal taking of interests, and breach of trust. An initial preliminary investigation opened following a simple complaint by Anticor resulted in the PNF closing the case without further action in 2020 due to no violation.

In its complaint, Anticor questioned the reality of the work carried out by Ms. Goulard for the Berggruen Institute, a California-based think tank, and the possible compensation received in exchange for the remuneration paid under this contract. Ms. Goulard had denounced "inaccurate and slanderous allegations" and filed a complaint.

She admitted to having worked, while she was an MEP, as a "special advisor" for more than 10,000 euros per month between October 2013 and January 2016 for a think tank at the Berggruen Institute, founded by German-American billionaire Nicolas Berggruen.

In their order, consulted by AFP, the investigating judges emphasize that "the signing of this consultancy contract was authorized" by the European Parliament and "does not present any element of concealment or opacity, this agreement having on the contrary been made public and executed in a transparent and traceable manner."

They stress that the "risk of conflict of interest" between Nicolas Berggruen's business activities and Sylvie Goulard's work in Parliament "justified that the conclusions of the contract or the absence of work" of the latter be verified.

But at the end of the investigation, "no objective evidence supports the initial suspicions that Nicolas Berggruen used this contract to influence Sylvie Goulard's parliamentary activity or obtain confidential information," the judges emphasize, according to whom the former MEP provided "real work."

Sylvie Goulard, who briefly served as Emmanuel Macron's Minister of the Armed Forces in 2017, was Deputy Governor of the Banque de France from 2018 to December 2020.