Disappearance of Le Floch-Prigent, ex-controversial CEO

Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, ex-CEO of large French public companies that spent several years in prison, died on Wednesday night in Paris from 81-year-old cancer, his wife announced to AFP. “Until the end, the large industry captain he was fought both for his businesses and for the defense of French industry,” wrote Marlène Le Floch-Prigent, in a statement transmitted to AFP.

He managed large French companies such as Rhône-Poulenc (1982-1986), Elf Aquitaine (1989-1993), bought by Total in 1999, GDF (1993-1995) and SNCF (1995-1996). “Loïk had a passion for France which he served with determination both in the private world and in the great servant of the State,” adds Ms. Le Floch-Prigent, in her message.

But he is also known for having spent about two years in prison for financial embezzlement. J. Eva Joly had uncovered a network of influenza, corruption and embezzlement of funds involving the leaders of the ELF group, including Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, and ministers like Roland Dumas and Charles Pasqua, from 1989 to 1993.

The Floch-Prigent was thus sentenced in 2003 to five years in prison for the abuse of corporate goods in the main component of this ELF file, involving nearly 305 million euros in embezzlement. He had been released three years ahead in April 2004, invoking health reasons, but had, in September 2010, to find this prison in a few months which he could not bear.

“As he was president of Elf, he paid the broken pots,” said his widow with AFP. In 2012, he was arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and then extradited to Togo, where he was placed for five months in pre -trial detention in a scam case. Back in France the following year, he proclaimed his innocence. In recent years, he has exercised “advisor” activities in industry, his “battle horse”, and “until the end, he was still working,” said his wife to AFP.