Oil, grease and sleaze

As one of France's most high-profile corruption trials gets under way, the contents of Alfred Sirven's address book are making some very powerful people quake in their fur-lined boots, writes VAIJU NARAVANE.

IT'S SMALL, black, leather-bound, and bears the famous ``barouche'' logo of Hermes, the Paris saddlery and fashion house. Alfred Sirven's address book reads like a Who's Who of the rich and famous, and, as one of France's most high-profile corruption trials gets under way, its embarrassing contents are making some very powerful people quake in their fur-lined boots.

Mr. Sirven, the 74-year-old former number two of France's oil giant Elf (now part of the private Total-Fina-Elf group), who dodged arrest for four years, was extradited from the Philippines earlier this month. From 1989 to 1993, when he was forced to leave Elf, he allegedly siphoned off an estimated 1.5 billion francs from the formerly state-owned company and is considered a ``key'' player in a huge corruption scandal involving the former French Foreign Minister, Mr. Roland Dumas, and a host of others. He is believed to have used the money to pay hefty bribes to politicians in France and abroad, provide phoney jobs to business cronies and ensure lucrative contracts for the company. Mr. Sirven is also suspected of salting away a tidy fortune for himself and his Philippine former maid- turned-companion, Vilma, who arranged false papers and discreet hideaways during the four years he spent on the run.

The scandal involving Mr. Dumas is but a minuscule part of a giant web of bribery, double-dealing and shadow financing allegedly spun by Mr. Sirven and his close collaborators. On February 8, Mr. Sirven was formally charged with attempted extortion in a multi-million-dollar sale of frigates to Taiwan and distributing millions of dollars in illegal slush funds allegedly siphoned off from Elf.

Mr. Dumas who was forced to resign as the head of France's highest court, the Constitutional Council, is charged with influence peddling and using his ministerial position to get his mistress, Ms. Christine Deviers-Joncour, a job with Elf. In her book, entitled ``The Whore of the Republic'', Ms. Deviers-Joncour says Mr. Sirven plied her with money and gifts to influence Mr. Dumas to approve the controversial sale of frigates to Taiwan. Mr. Dumas is believed to have profited from the $ 9 million she earned as commissions from the deal.

On February 7, Mr. Sirven made a star appearance at the trial involving Mr. Dumas, his ex-mistress and a number of former Elf employees. There was a strange atmosphere in the courtroom as the principal accused greeted each other warmly with rounds of hand- shaking and cheek-kissing. Mr. Sirven, also one of the accused, was being tried in absentia. The trial has now been adjourned until March 12 to give him enough time to prepare his defence.

Mr. Sirven has boasted that his revelations could ``bring down the Republic''. And although all those involved in the scandal have expressed their satisfaction at Mr. Sirven's arrest and extradition from the Philippines, politicians and senior civil servants are reportedly worried about the effect of his ``Pandora's Box''. ``My work at this company was mixed up with politics and that's never good. I could give away a hundred names but it doesn't interest me,'' he said in a brief interview upon his arrest in the Philippines on February 2.

The Socialists are more worried than others. ``Let us not forget that presidential elections are just 14 months away. Sirven and his cronies operated at the height of the Mitterrand era. The former President's son Jean-Christophe has been charged with illegal arms sale, misuse of public office and fraud. Some very embarrassing high-level secrets could become public property. This would be very damaging to the Socialists,'' says Mr. Jean- Charles Debain, lawyer.

France's Socialist Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Jospin, was recently criticised for his Government's handling of Mr. Sirven's arrest. German prosecutors detained Mr. Sirven for four days upon his arrival in Frankfurt from Manila enroute to Paris. German magistrates want him to testify on alleged kickbacks paid when the former East German refinery Leuna was sold to Elf in 1992. It is suspected that the funds were partially used to finance the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party when it was run by the former Chancellor, Mr. Helmut Kohl. The name of the fugitive German businessman, Mr. Dieter Holzer, alleged to have received 161 million francs in illegal commissions, figures prominently in Mr. Sirven's little black book.

Some of its pages have been reproduced by the weekly Paris Match. Under the alphabet M, writes the weekly, the names jostling for space include those of Mr. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the former conservative Industries Minister, Mr. Alain Madelin, the former head of President Mitterrand's Cabinet, Mr. Gilles Menage, the former top Elf executive, Mr. Maurice Mallet, and several others. The respected Paris daily Le Monde says Mr. Sirven's name has been cited no less than 3,649 times in the 1,598 documents and reports - not including the Taiwanese frigate affaire - that constitute the charges. Some three billion francs have gone missing from the coffers of Elf during the period that Mr. Sirven served as director of ``General Affairs'' at the behest of his friend, Mr. Loik Le Floch-Prigent, who headed the company.

The Alfred Sirven dossier can be divided into seven major chapters: his role in the divorce settlement of Mr. Loik Le Floch-Prigent (18 million francs of Elf's money paid to Mr. Floch-Prigent's former wife), the implantation of Elf in Venezuela (20 million dollars in commissions), his commissions in the Middleeast, Angola and Congo-Brazzaville, the purchase of Spain's Ertoil petroleum company and the Leuna refinery in Germany, favours and salaries paid to various personalities, the sale of French frigates to Taiwan, and the sale of prime property by Elf in Paris.Mr. Sirven operated some 300 numbered Swiss bank accounts and his address book is full of code names such as Coco, Roro, Pepe, Jo. The Philippine authorities said he fled to Manila with over 400 million francs in cash. The trial resumes on March 12.

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