But the story is much more complex than that. France 5 did a magnificent six-part documentary series featuring the celebrated investigative journalist Pierre Péan. It carefully disentangled the different threads of this web of financial organisations, French secret services, Middle East politics and terrorism, and brought the players in the story to life by interviewing them at length.  It would not be possible to present five minutes as a meaningful extract, so I've decided to summarise the story here, and then illustrate with video clips.

There are a number of different stories within L'affaire Clearstream – the conflict between two great French arms manufacturers Lagardère and Thomson, the discovery of secret accounts maintained by the International clearing house Clearstream – the famous 'listings', the murky world of arms dealers and the sale of French frigates to Taiwan, terrorist killings of French engineers in Karachi... and the story of a young trader called Imad Lahoud, who sadly, never managed quite to tell the truth

The following is my summary of the programmes.  A better and fuller account is given in Clearstream 1 and Clearstream 2 on Wiki

1. The story of Imad Lahoud

Imad is a young Lebanese City of London trader, whose father was a senior military officer, and whose brother Marwan is a senior executive in the arms manufacturing branch of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.

Imad's main claim to fame is that while working for the bank Merrill Lynch in London, he was responsible for managing the portfolio of the prestigious, and very respectable Ben Laden family of Saudi Arabia, of which one member, Oussama, was rather less than respectable

Imad is a brilliant young man with a chequered career. After launching an investment company which went bust, he serves a prison term for fraud

On his release from prison, brother Marwan speaks to one of the senior managers of EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin, trying to get a job for his young brother. Gergorin interviews Imad, who claims to have information about the bank accounts of Oussama Ben Laden.

Imad ends up speaking to General Philippe Rondot, who was a very senior officer in the French intelligence services DST and DGSE. He makes the same claims, Rondot believes him, and EADS takes Imad on board as a cover, while he works for the secret services as an informer.

However, in reality Imad has little information to offer, and his lucrative relationship with EADS looks like being short-lived. However, his trading background allows him to propose another possibility – following the money transfers of the Ben Laden family by consulting the records of Clearstream Banking S.A, a Luxembourg clearing house which facilitates and records the movement of funds between banks of different countries.

These videos are all in Flash Video format. You can download the video and subtitle file as usual, or click on the image to play in the browser

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2. The story of Denis Robert

He is an investigative journalist and novel writer. He meets up with Ernest Backes, who was a founder of Clearstream before being fired from his post.

Knowing the mechanisms of Clearstream well, Backes assembles some useful information. A friend gives him a pile of all the address stickers that go on letters posted out to account holders with the company. Laboriously, Backes enters each address, one by one, into a database. Then he compares his data with the published list of Clearstream account holders. What is left represents the 'secret accounts' of the country, some 8,000

While secret or 'numbered' accounts are not illegal, it appears that when money relative to these accounts is transferred, no record is kept, an omission that could facilitate tax evasion and money laundering. Robert and Backes publish all of this in a book, Revelations, and Clearstream starts a series of law suits against them.

The two stories coincide

At this point, Imad meets up with Denis Robert. He tells him about his, according to him, unjustified jail sentence, and that he wants to identify the real fraudsters by tracking them through Clearstream. Robert believes him, and gives him CD-ROMS containing the information. With this information, Imad is able to continue his fantasy with the French secret services, pretending to be able to track the secret accounts of Bin Laden

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3. The rivalry between two French arms manufacturers

One of the surnames found in the 'Clearstream list' is that of Gomez. Imad pretends that this must be Alain Gomez, the head of the group Thomson, one of the two biggest French arms manufacturers. This enables him to enter the conflict between Thomson and its rival Lagardère, of which the founder and President is Arnaud. Lagardère.

Jean-Louis Gergorin is Lagardère's right-hand man, passionately attached to his boss. He believes there is a plot to destabilise the Lagardère group, and that it is the work of Gomez. The plot is code-named 'Couper les ailes de l'oiseau'.

Arnaud Lagardère dies in March 2003, of a rare and rather mysterious disease. Gergorin is convinced that he has been murdered and that it is the work of Gomez. Gergorin is at this moment mentally unbalanced. He tells himself that the assassins must have been involved in financial speculation against Lagardère – and of course he has the perfect person avaialble to inquire into this in the shape of Imad. Gergorin pours his heart out to Imad, who listens carefully, realising that he can profit from this. His relationship with the French secret services is going badly: he needs to persuade them of his usefulness.

At this point Imad not only tells the French secret service that he has detected unusual financial transactions just before the death of Lagardère, but he now brings into the story the name of Gomez, head of Thomson, and whose surname appears in the Clearstream listing

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4. The sale of frigates to Taiwan

1980s and the scale of corruption in the old colonies of Africa, as well as in the regions of France becomes evident. The rules are tightened, and of course, the arms manufacturers immediately look for other ways to grease the palms of potential customers. At this point Taiwan decided to buy some gunboats to assure nits protection against China. This was a wonderful opportunity for the company Thomson and its director Alain Gomez. to sell their advanced 'Lafayette' frigates. Unfortunately China leant hard on President Mitterrand and his government decided not to proceed with this order.

Thomson – assisted by the French petrol company Elf - was not going to take this lying down, and decided to keep Taiwan sweet by a programme of massive financial corruption. In this murky world of secret arms deals we even meet a mysterious Chinaman Wang Chuan-Pu, and a Mata Hari – Christine Deviers-Joncourt, mistress of Foreign Office Minister Roland Dumas, and the pay of the arms manufacturers. The money paid out was in the order of 750 million dollars. The result of all this is that eventually Mitterrand agrees to proceed with the sale – but on the condition that the boats are not actually armed. The pressure, political and financial, becomes such that people are now being threatened with death if they do not cooperate.

And now we come across the word 'retro-commissions' – money paid in bribed, and of which a part is paid back to someone in France. In France Eva Joly (now candidate in the 2012 presidential elections for the Greens, then a magistrate) starts to enquire into the affair. No-one is very keen to cooperate and the enquiry goes nowhere fast Until 2001, when Joel Bucher, who worked for the Bank Société Générale in setting up the funds transfers, unburdens himself to a Parliamentary Commission, particularly on the activities of the head palm-greaser, Wang Chuan-Pu, . At this time the enquiry judge is the famous Van Ruymbeke.

Where is our friend Imad Lahoud in all this ? Gergorin had asked him to find out proof that the head of Lagardère had been murdered at the behest of Alain Gomez of Thomson, by demonstrating suspicious funbds transfers. Imad happily provides this proof by finding the name 'Gomez' (a Brazilian) nin the Clearstream listing, and turning it into 'Alain Gomez'. And for good measure he also adds to the listing the name Wang Chuan-Pu, It is at this moment that Gergorin, convinced of the existence of a massive web of corruption at the top of the French state, goes to talk to his friend Dominique de Villepin...

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5. The terrorist attacks of Karachi

But Lahoud not only adds the name of Gomez to the listings. The names of a number of political figures can also be found including 'Stéphane Bocsa' and 'Paul de Nagy' – family names of Nicolas Sarkozy. Gergorin knows de Villepin well, and in the company of General Rondot, tells him about the listing. De Villepin is very interested, and it is important at the juncture to understand why

1995, the Presidency of François Mitterrand is brought to an end by his illness and death. We have a 'cohabitation' – a socialist president and a right-wing prime minister. Jacques Chirac aims to be the next President and does not want the prime Minister's job, preferring to remain 'clean'. Instead he agrees with his friend Edouard Balladur, that he should take it. There is an understanding that Balladur will not run for President.

In fact Balladur decides to run against Chirac. One of the supporters of Balladur, is Nicolas Sarkozy, then Finance Minister

From this time dates the hatred of the Chirac camp for the 'traitors'. It is also from the beginning of this campaign, that the Balladur government starts an intensive selling campaign of arms to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries.

Because Balladur has a problem. Political candidates to the Presidential elections receive large financial grants from the State. The official candidate of the right-wing was Chirac, Balladur had to finance his own campaign. At this time 'commissions' (bribes) are paid to officials of countries to whom one was trying to sell arms. It was suspected – but never proved – that there were also 'retro-commissions' – a proportion of the official commission paid back to someone in the original country. In other words Balladur, aided by his Finance Minister, were illegally financing their campaign in this manner.

Nothing had been proved. Now de Villepin sees, in the Clearstream listings, with names of Sarkozy and other right-wing figures of the time such as Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy's friend, the proof he needs to be revenged on his enemy.

It was not just a matter of illegal retro-commissions. After his election in 1995, Chirac decided that no further commissions were to be paid. In 2002, at Karachi there is a terrorist attack which killed a number of French nationals. It is suspected that the 'terrorists' were actually Pakistani secret service agents, and that the attach was a reprisal for the non-payment of commissions

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6. La République des mallettes

This is the most complex of the stories..

We are in 2004, Dominique de Villepin replaces Nicolas Sarkozy at the Intérieur, and Sarkozy goes to Finance. De Villepin decides to give the information about the Clearstream listing to the most famous of all the French juges d'instruction, Van Ruymbeke.

Jean-Louis Gergorin is paranoid about the affair, particularly that of the 'the frigates of Taiwan', where two people mysteriously fell out of fourth-floor windows – and of course he believes that Lagardère's death was no accident. He asks Lahoud to create a private network of Blackberries, where the messages passed could not be intercepted by the security services or others. Gergorin speaks to Van Ruymbeke, but refuses to be an official witness. The information cannot be made official.

What to do ? Gergorin decides to send an anonymous letter to the judge setting out the 'facts' as he sees them, and the judge will officially be able to act upon it. It was not a good idea. Gergoring becomes 'le corbeau' – the whistle-blower. The letter places him at the centre of the conspiracy.

The next fable devised by Lahoud is that the hidden accounts of Clearstream are being closed – 895 accounts, according to him, disappear. Gergorin writes again to Van Ruymbeke – this time in the photocopies of account listing is included that of 'Bocsa' and 'Nagy' – family names of Nicolas Sarkozy. Villepin sends an enigmatic message from his secret Blackberry to Gergorin. If there has been a manipulation, he says 'tout cela finira mal'.

But of the secret Blackberries, there is one that Gergorin does not know about.

When Lahoud was in prison he had to find a protector. He says that in French prisons, to survive, you either find a protector, or you convert to Islam. For him, his protector was a Corsican mafiosa. After their release from prison, this man visits him, demanding money. Panicked, Lahoud goes to police headquarters at 36 Quai des Orfèvres and is put in touch with a secret service agent specialising in Corsican affairs, François Casanova. Casanova is the agent who tracked down Yvan Colonna, Corsican terrorist accused of murdering the Préfet Erignac. Casanova is in touch with the highest levels of French politics. He works for Bernard Squarcini, head of one of the secret services, and a friend of Nicolas Sarkozy. The assumption is that Sarkozy is able to follow the affair. Casanova has the missing Blackberry.

And now we come to the 'war chest' that was supposed to have been collected for the presidential election campaign of 2007. This is based on a contract of 7 billion euros, and known as l'affaire Mixa. The political players are Charles Pasqua and Claude Guéant.

Pasqu had initiated the contract some years earlier, and Guéant makes Sarkozy aware of it when he is appointed to the Intérieur in 2002. According to certain sources, Sarkozy gets in contact with Ziad Takieddine, the wheeler dealer who was behind the retrocommissions paid at the time of Edouard Balladur. All of this is very suspicious... the contract is above board, ready to be signed... what is Sarkozy trying to achieve ?

The name of a rival to Ziad Takieddine enters into play – Alexandre Djouhri. Born in a poor district of Paris, he starts life as a gangster. He graduates to Paris, still as a gangster. Frequenter of night-clubs, he becomes friends with the son of a director of UNESCO, with the sons of African politicians, and those of the Near East, and also with the son of Alain Delon, Anthony. He persuades Anthony to launch a business using his father's name, Delon père objects, and a war between the son and the father starts which leaves some corpses in its wake

But the relationship between police and gangsters in Paris is a strange one, and Djouhri enjoys the protection of certain top policemen, among them François Casanova. He is introduced into the petrol company Elf, works extensively as a 'business-man' for that company in Africa... and finishes by becoming a close collaborator of Dominique de Villepin. He is a man who can get things done.

And that is what he does for Chirac and Villepin. He uses his Saudi contacts to spoil the game of Sarkozy and Takieddine.  All of these details lead to one conclusion .. that during this time both Sarkozy and de Villeping knew exactly what was going on and were engaged in a power play, the one against the other

And now our friend Imad Lahoud comes back into the story. He writes a note for General Rondot on the affaire Mixa, showing a remarkable knowledge of the Saudi contract, and alleging retrocommissions. Only Casanova could have given him these details

During the famous meeting between Gergorin, de Villepin and General Rondot, de Villepin evokes the name of Djourhi and the Mixa contact .. he wants to know is his friends name appears in the Clearstream listings

And Casanova introduces Imad Lahoud to Djouhri in 2004. This is exactly at the time that Van Ruymbeke starts to inquire into Clearstream, and Gergorin is writing his anonymous letter to the judge, including the family names of Sarkozy. All of this now comes to the knowledge of the French press.

And finally it is established that the Clearstream listing s are false. Van Ruymbeke has been taken for a ride. He has inquired for 12 years into the affair of the Taiwan frigates, and now is forced to drop the enquiry.

The formal enquiry into the Clearstream affair examines most of the players described above. Denis Robert is found not guilty. Nothing is found against Dominique de Villepin. Gergorin gets 3 years reduced to 3 months in prison on appeal for having been the whistle blower of false information. Imad Lahoud is at the centre of this story. He gets 3 years prison, reduced to 18 months. 

It is not the sort of ending that John Le Carré would write. In a spy story one wants all the loose ends to be tied up. But of course, the story may not be over yet ...

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