Former French First Lady Carla Bruni faces allegations of corruption.

Former French first lady and supermodel, Carla Bruni has been charged with corruption offences.

The 56-year-old is alleged to have been involved in a criminal conspiracy to ‘whitewash’ her husband, former President Nicolas Sarkozy, 69, over allegations that he accepted millions in cash from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.

After being questioned by examining magistrates on Tuesday evening, a judicial source in Paris said she was being prosecuted on July 9, about ‘witness tampering and fraud in an organised gang’.

Both extremely serious offences are punishable by up to 10 years, with sentences going up to 20 with aggravating circumstances such as gang membership.

In particular, Bruni is accused of being part of a £4 million campaign dubbed ‘Operation Save Sarko’ – a complex and illegal plan to try and keep Sarkozy, who is already a convicted criminal, out of a jail cell.

Bruni was ‘placed under judicial supervision and banned from contacting all those involved in the case’ apart from her husband, as reported by the AFP news agency.

The bail conditions will remain in force until Bruni appears in a criminal trial.

Bruni is a close associate of Mimi Marchand, a French media intermediary who is under formal investigation for ‘witness tampering’ and ‘criminal corruption’ in the same case.

Marchand, 77, known as ‘The Paparazzi Queen’, is alleged to have paid former French-Lebanese arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, 74, to retract a sworn statement claiming he facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars from Colonel Gaddafi to Sarkozy.

In an interview published in Paris Match magazine four years ago, Takieddine retracted his assertion that cash-filled suitcases were delivered to Sarkozy’s associates.

The money was purportedly used to finance the 2007 election campaign that led to Sarkozy’s presidency in France.

Sarkozy falsely asserted in a 2020 interview that he had been exonerated because ‘the truth has come to light’.

However, Marchand, who also refutes any wrongdoing, is alleged by prosecutors to have incentivised Takieddine to alter his testimony.

The case involving Bruni is known as ‘Operation Save Sarko’ and is proceeding alongside the Libyan funding case, in which Sarkozy has already been charged.

Prosecutors claim Takieddine received up to £4 million to ‘alter his testimony’.

Bruni has consistently denied any involvement in ‘Operation Save Sarko,’ stating she steers clear of legal entanglements involving her husband, who has two prior criminal convictions.

She has previously said: ‘When people talk to me about it, it puts me in a situation of anger and indignation which does not help my husband.’
Bruni added: ‘I don’t have the beginnings of the slightest curiosity about my husband’s affairs.’
But detectives claim that Bruni deleted all of the messages she had exchanged with Marchand on the encrypted Signal app, before Marchand’s indictment in June 2021.

Sarkozy has been charged with corruption, ‘illicit funding of an election campaign’, ‘receiving misappropriated public funds’, and ‘criminal conspiracy’ in relation to the Gaddafi scandal, and is due to go on trial next year.

Three of his former ministers, Brice Hortefeux, Claude Guéant, and Éric Woerth are also under investigation.

In January, Sarkozy failed to overturn a criminal conviction and prison sentence for illegally funding his campaign for re-election.

He was found guilty of fiddling the books during his unsuccessful 2012 bid to become head of state.

Sarkozy, who was President of France for five years up until 2012, served his sentence wearing an electronic tag at the Paris home he shares with Bruni.