Apology to trio as Renault espionage case takes new turn

A SECURITY officer working for Renault has been charged with fraud and accused of inventing industrial espionage claims that led the car-maker to wrongly suspect - and suspend - three of its executives.

Michel Balthazard, Bertrand Rochette and Matthieu Tenenbaum were suspended earlier this year after Renault said it had discovered signs of espionage, triggered by an anonymous accusation. However, the executives had strongly denied any involvement and investigators could not verify the allegations. Renault's focus then shifted to a possible scam.

Preliminary charges of organised fraud have now been filed against Dominique Gevrey, once employed by the defence ministry's intelligence service and now a member of Renault's security service, prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said yesterday.

Gevrey was detained on Friday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to board a flight for Guinea, and has since been jailed.

Mr Marin said: "Renault is perhaps not a victim of indelicate employees but of fraud."

He said foreign accounts that were alleged to have been held by the three executives, notably in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, do not exist.

After Gevrey's arrest, Renault quickly convened an extraordinary board meeting and sent an apology to the three wrongly accused employees.

Chief executive Carlos Ghosn and chief operating officer Patrick Pelata "acknowledge the serious personal harm that they (the employees] and their families have suffered," a company statement said, adding that "reparations (will] be made" and "their honour in the public eye (will] be restored."

Gevrey's lawyer, Jean-Paul Baduel, insisted that his client is innocent, saying in an interview that he is "nothing but a little soldier". He denounced what he said was Renault's "paranoia".

Renault launched an internal investigation into allegations that the three executives had "deliberately and consciously threatened" company assets, after receiving an anonymous letter denouncing the men. The allegations centred on Renault's electric car programme, in which Renault and partner Nissan had invested $4 billion.

The scandal, which Renault made public in January, led French industry minister Eric Besson to openly talk of "economic warfare" being waged on one of France's leading industrial giants.

China was mentioned by government sources as being behind the spying attempt.

Renault filed a criminal complaint on 13 January "against persons unknown" for acts constituting organised industrial espionage, corruption, breach of trust, theft and concealment.The car-maker said it had discovered "serious misconduct detrimental to the company" and in particular to its "strategic, technological and intellectual assets".

In an interview at the time with newspaper Le Monde, Mr Pelata had accused an "organised, international network" of obtaining information on Renault's flagship electric car programme, including its architecture, costs and economic model. However, sensitive, proprietary technological information had not been compromised, he said.

Mr Ghosn told TV channel TF1 on 23 January that "we have the certitude" and "multiple" proofs of the alleged espionage, although Renault never disclosed any evidence to back up its complaint, saying such information was reserved for investigators.

But by early March, doubt was growing, and Mr Pelata spoke of a possible "manipulation".