Vincent Bolloré has filed a criminal complaint against several Paris judges, accusing them of criminal association over the collapse of a 2021 plea bargain in the Togo ports corruption case.
The filing was made on May 21, 2026, and later reported by French daily Le Monde, which published a detailed account on August 31.
The complaint rests on article 450-1 of the French penal code, which covers criminal association.
The French billionaire, whose group spans logistics and conservative media including CNews, Europe 1 and Le Journal du dimanche, alleges “criminal association”, “obstruction of the course of justice”, “abuse of authority” and “breach of integrity”.
The complaint names, among others, judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez and Stéphane Noël, then president of the Paris judicial court.
Bolloré’s lawyers, Céline Astolfe, Pierre Cornut-Gentille and Jean Veil, said the 2021 hearing did “irreparable” harm to his presumption of innocence and that concerted manoeuvres altered “the normal course of justice”.
They described the refusal to approve the plea deal as a “premeditated plan”.
The dispute goes back to February 26, 2021. Investigators allege that Havas, then a Bolloré subsidiary, supplied cut-price advice to Faure Gnassingbé’s 2010 Togolese presidential campaign in return for favourable terms at the port of Lomé. Gnassingbé has held power in Togo since 2005.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and Bolloré SE agreed a public-interest judicial convention (convention judiciaire d’intérêt public, or CJIP), a settlement comparable to a deferred prosecution agreement: The company paid a €12 million fine and accepted a compliance programme, without an admission of guilt. Separately, Bolloré and two executives, Gilles Alix and Jean-Philippe Dorent, accepted a negotiated procedure and a €375,000 fine each.
Prévost-Desprez approved the company settlement but refused to homologate the individual deals, calling the penalty “unsuitable given the circumstances of the offence and the personality of the perpetrator”. The men were sent back for a public trial.
Noël had been due to preside and stood down two days beforehand. He belonged to the influence club Le Siècle, as does Bolloré’s son Yannick; he cited the risk of an appearance of partiality.
The defence said his replacement by Prévost-Desprez was “irregular” and the result of “pressure”, and that the bench was chosen “deliberately” so the deal with the PNF would fail.
Prévost-Desprez was first vice-president of the Paris judicial court at the time, a rank that allowed her to sit in place of the president when he was unable to do so, Le Monde reported. The judges named in the complaint have not commented on it.
They also cited later remarks by Prévost-Desprez at a conference, when she said approving the negotiated sentence would have been “almost contempt of court”.
Jean-François Bohnert, who then headed the PNF, rejected the claim of a guaranteed outcome. “As a matter of principle, one never gives an assurance, written or verbal, as to the result of a judicial procedure,” he told Le Monde.
He said that the prosecution may express a hope that a deal will be validated; the sitting judge always decides.
Bolloré wants the Paris court recused and the 2021 hearing investigated.
Success could delay the trial now listed for December 7-17 at the Paris judicial court.
A similar bid failed on July 29, when the Court of Cassation dismissed an application of “legitimate suspicion” based, Le Monde reported, on analogous arguments. That application was lodged on May 28, a week after the criminal complaint, and was heard behind closed doors. Bolloré and his lawyers stayed away from a preparatory hearing the same day, Agence France-Presse reported.
Prosecutors have previously described successive defence applications in the case as delaying tactics. “It is urgent to judge these facts, even if the defence does everything to prevent us,” deputy financial prosecutor Jean-Christophe Michard said in May, noting the earliest allegations dated back 17 years.
The underlying charges, bribery of a foreign public official in Togo and related breach of trust offences, have not been tried on the merits. They cover port operations between 2009 and 2011, and investigating judges ordered the case to trial in mid-March. Bolloré, 74, faces up to 10 years in prison, according to a judicial source cited by Agence France-Presse.
Bolloré’s lawyers say the commercial dealings were normal and that he did not know of them.
A coalition of 11 West African NGOs has filed a legal complaint against French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, accusing him of corruption, money laundering, and handling stolen goods. https://t.co/TowXsTdgJ9
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 19, 2025
