Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, ex-CEO of large French public companies that spent several years in prison, died on Wednesday in Paris in the 81-year-old cancer, his wife announced to AFP.
‘Until the end, the great 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 that he served with determination both in the private world and in the great servant of the State,’ adds Ms. Le Floch-Prigent in his message.
But he is also known for having spent about two years in prison for financial embezzlement.
Judge Eva Joly had uncovered a network of influenza, corruption and embezzlement 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.
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.
/ATS