Among those heard as witnesses were the director of international security and the former security director of Auchan’s Russian branch, according to the media.
Since March 2020, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office of France has been investigating corruption cases in the Russian subsidiary of the Auchan group. This was reported yesterday by the French media.
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According to the AFP agency, the charges against the Russian subsidiary Auchan include “bribery of a foreign official, bribery of an individual, complicity in these crimes and their concealment.” In 2020, searches were conducted in this case, and employees and former heads of Auchan Russia testified before the French Central Office for Combating Corruption, Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF).
“The investigation aims to clarify the facts within Auchan’s Russian branch, but it is not directed against Auchan, which is the victim in this case and has the right to file a civil lawsuit,” the French group said.
The publication Challenges indicated that among those heard as witnesses were the director of international security and the former security director of Auchan’s branch in Russia.
The publication quoted Auchan’s former lawyer in Russia, Alexei Zharkov, as saying that the purchase managers of the Russian “daughter” organized dummy tenders, artificially inflated purchase prices and gave of incentives for promoting products for money. According to him, due to corruption networks in Russian Auchan “pumped out” “from 80 to 100 million euros per year, which corresponds to 2-3% of the turnover of the network in Russia.”
Auchan’s group emphasized that Zharkov’s figures were “not supported by any evidence or real documents” and that he tried to “interest the press in his story” because his contract was not renewed in 2019.
“Auchan did not wait for an investigation by French justice, or the unproven claims of a former employee, to recognize this problem and deal with it better,” the company said.
The media reminds that Auchan, which brings more than 10% of its sales to Russia, is one of the few French companies that decided to continue their activities in the country after the start of the war in Ukraine.
It will be remembered that Auchan is included in the list of international sponsors of the war. In just one year, Auchan paid $167 million to the Russian budget. This is equivalent to the amount of 222 Caliber rockets, fired by the aggressor country in Ukraine.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Auchan had become “a full-fledged weapon of Russian aggression.”
Source: korrespondent
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.