FORMER French first lady Carla Bruni is being questioned by police as a criminal suspect in a wide-ranging corruption case.
The supermodel is said to have tried to ‘whitewash’ her husband, former President Nicolas Sarkozy, over allegations that he accepted millions in cash from the late Libyan dicatator Muammar Gaddafi.
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Bruni, who denies any wrongdoing today attended the Paris offices of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses.
A source close to the case: “Her status is free suspect.
“She has spoken to officers before, but not as a suspect in a case in which she’s accused of trying to whitewash her husband.”
Bruni, 56, is a close friend of Mimi Marchand – a French media fixer who has been placed under formal investigation for “‘”witness tampering” and “criminal corruption”.
Marchand, 77 and nicknamed ‘The Paparazzi Queen’, is accused of paying former French-Lebanese arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, 74, to drop a sworn testament that he arranged for millions of dollars from Colonel Gaddafi to be paid to Sarkozy.
During an interview which was published in Paris Match magazine four years ago, Takieddine withdraw his claim that suitcases stuffed with cash had been delivered to Sarkozy’s colleagues.
The money was used to fund the 2007 election campaign that saw Sarkozy win his one and only term in office as President of France, it was alleged.
Sarkozy, 69, used the 2020 interview to falsely claim that he had been cleared because ‘the truth is out’.
But Marchand – who also denies any wrongdoing – is said by prosecutors to have offered Takieddine inducements to change his story.
The case involving Bruni is dubbed ‘Operation Save Sarko’, and is running in tandem with the Libyan funding case, in which Sarkozy has already been indicted.
Takieddine, who is currently in Lebanon, is said to have received the equivalent of up to £4million to ‘change his story,’ according to prosecution claims.
Bruni has continually denied any involvement in ‘Operation Save Sarko,’ saying she tries to avoid legal cases involving her husband, who is already a twice convicted criminal.