He emerged free and without pursuit. Placed in police custody on Tuesday morning, Bernard Laporte left the Financial Judicial Investigation Service (SEJF) at 6 p.m. The president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) was heard in the context of a preliminary investigation opened in August 2020 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for suspicion of money laundering of aggravated tax fraud.
“It is a matter in which he finds himself implicated having been associated with rugby friends a long time ago. He was neither accused of having defrauded nor of having received any sum, ”says one of his lawyers, Me Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi.
“It would be a donation granted more than 12 years ago to a former rugby player friend and partner of Bernard Laporte, a donation which would not have been regularly declared to the tax authorities, explains in a press release Me Thierry Nesa , who accompanied him during this police custody. It is established that Bernard Laporte did not receive any sum and is only involved as a partner. Master Thierry Nesa confirms that neither the French Rugby Federation nor Rugby in general can be impacted by this private file. »
No links with other French rugby affairs
This case is not linked, according to several judicial sources, to the corruption case which earned him a two-year prison sentence and a 75,000 euro fine in December, a sentence which he appealed.
No link either, according to our information, with another PNF investigation, after suspicions of corruption, influence peddling and favoritism within the organizing committee of the Rugby World Cup in France. But the timing of this police custody is bad for Bernard Laporte and his clan.
Police custody in the middle of a club referendum
From Monday until Thursday noon, the French clubs are consulted by referendum to endorse or not the appointment of Patrick Buisson, vice-president of the FFR in charge of amateur rugby, as deputy president. An electronic vote decided after the withdrawal of Bernard Laporte, put under pressure by the Ministry of Sports in the wake of his conviction at first instance.
“It is perfectly scandalous that the prosecution chose the date of the election of Mr. (Patrick) Buisson to fix that of the hearing and that the disclosure of this hearing was made the same day”, denounced Me Jean -Pierre Versini-Campinchi, denouncing a “relentlessness of the PNF”. The latter was already on what had been called the Laporte-Altrad affair, because of the image contract between the owner of the Montpellier club and the president of the FFR.
In the event of rejection of the Patrick Buisson solution, the leaders of the federation intend to propose another name to the clubs. A plan B rejected by the opposition. The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, will be present at the steering committee on Friday morning, devoted in particular to the results of this referendum.