2023-06-01 05:45:12
The boxes are ready. At Bercy, in the spring of 2014, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Moscovici, is about to leave. The deputy director of his cabinet, Alexis Kohler, wonders about his own future. What to do ? Taking the helm of the State Shareholding Agency (APE), an organization of which he has already was one of the bosses? Or go private, in this case with the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC, the world leader in maritime transport?
This powerful group, owned by his mother’s family, wants to recruit him and has been pursuing him for a long time. “I think this project dates back to 2013”, will specify, much later, to the police Alexa Aponte, financial director of the MSC empire and cousin of the senior official. The billionaire moderately appreciates the questions of the investigators, who are now trying to determine whether Alexis Kohler, now Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, was able, when he worked at Bercy, to promote the interests of MSC, which would fall of the offense of “illegal taking of interests”. An embarrassing affair for this 50-year-old enarque, main collaborator of Emmanuel Macron.
Let’s go back to 2014. At the time, the fate of the Franco-Korean shipyards STX (formerly Chantiers de l’Atlantique) was of concern to the socialist government. Decisive commercial discussions take place between their representatives, the shipowner MSC and Bercy’s services: STX relies on MSC to order ships. Alexis Kohler, at the ministry, is in the front row to be informed of the file. However, at the same time, he is in a relationship, personally this time, with his cousin Alexa Aponte.
It was she who suggested a dinner for him on Sunday, January 26, 2014. The object? “Let us talk about Geneva again”, she says in an email. Geneva, the group’s head office and the city where he could move in with his wife and children if he were hired by the shipowner. Concretely, while MSC conducts high-level negotiations, the Aponte family offers a golden bridge to Alexis Kohler to join it. What arouse unease, against a backdrop of potential conflicts of interest.
The idea of changing lives seduces the Kohlers. Alexis’ salary (10,500 euros monthly) would more than double, an apartment would be made available to him. His wife, Sylvie, negotiates directly with Rafaela Aponte, mother of Alexa and founder of MSC. The two women know each other well: Rafaela, owner of a splendid yacht, the Radialis used to inviting the French family on its summer cruises.
You have 89.46% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
#MSC #Elysée #confusion #ambitions