As if French industry had not enough scandal these days, the chief executive of Bouygues-Telecom SA and the sales director for Alcatel-Alsthom SA subsidiary Cegelec were among several people arrested and interrogated Tuesday by the regional judicial police for fraudulent billing on public works projects. The arrests and judicial restraining orders followed the seizure of documents at Bouygues’ headquarters by yet another public investigator, Jean-Marie Charpier, of Versailles. In the course of a simple fiscal investigation of a service organisation in the Paris suburbs, Charpier discovered a series of allegedly fraudulent invoices totalling between $10.8m and $12m. The money appears to have represented pay-offs for public works contracts received, according to Le Figaro. Bouygues apparently received part of a fraudulent loan granted for a communications village project, while Cegelec allegedly got a kickback from a fraudulent bill for around $44,000 for its Euro-Tunnel contract.
