One of France's wealthiest individuals is facing justice: conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré is due to stand trial in Paris in December, notably for corruption of a foreign public official in Togo between 2009 and 2011, in the so-called "African ports" case.

The hearing is scheduled for December 7-17, 2026, before the Paris Criminal Court, a judicial source confirmed, corroborating a report in the newspaper Le Monde. The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) also confirmed this.

The events date back to the 2010 election campaign of Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé.

Mr. Bolloré, 73, a key figure in media and logistics, will have to answer for his role in the actions of the advertising agency Euro RSCG (now Havas), a subsidiary of his group, which allegedly provided services for Mr. Gnassingbé's presidential campaign at an undervalued price.

In exchange, the Togolese president supported the allocation "from May 2009 of various advantages to the Bolloré group" and its subsidiaries, including the extension of the concession period for "the operation of the port of Lomé and tax advantages and the construction of a third quay", according to the order issued Wednesday and which AFP learned of on Thursday.

For the investigating judges, these facts must be understood as corruption of a foreign public official, which took place from 2009 to 2011, when Mr. Bolloré was president of the Bolloré group.

The Breton industrialist is also being sent back for complicity in breach of trust in Togo between 2009 and 2010, but also in Guinea between 2010 and 2011, in the context of the presidential campaign of former leader Alpha Condé in 2010.

"Impossible" trial

Mr. Bolloré's lawyers told AFP they would appeal the judges' order issued Wednesday "on procedural grounds".

Above all, lawyers Céline Astolfe and Olivier Baratelli felt that "holding a fair trial" was "impossible" due to the unusual path the case had taken before the French justice system.

Vincent Bolloré was charged in 2018, but in 2021, the billionaire, along with Gilles Alix, CEO of the Bolloré group at the time, and Jean-Philippe Dorent, international director at Havas, admitted the facts during a plea bargain hearing (CRPC, a fast-track procedure), accepting a fine of 375,000 euros.

However, Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez refused to approve it, sending the case back for further investigation.

However, it had approved a judicial agreement in the public interest (Cjip) for the Bolloré group, which had paid a fine of 12 million euros in exchange for the abandonment of proceedings.

For Mr. Bolloré's lawyers, the unapproved CRPC (plea bargaining procedure) of Mr. Bolloré has caused "irreparable harm" to his "presumption of innocence".

"Vincent Bolloré found himself one morning in the Paris court, before a deliberately assembled panel which first approved the collection of the money, recorded the requested admission of guilt, then suddenly and contrary to the word given and the agreements made refused the planned approval," they protested in their statement on Thursday, recalling that they had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

"Moment of truth"

For their part, Gilles Alix is being sent back for corruption of a foreign public official in Togo between 2009 and 2010, breach of trust in Togo between 2009 and 2010, as well as breach of trust in Guinea between 2010 and 2011.

Jean-Philippe Dorent was sent back for complicity in breach of trust in Togo, between 2009 and 2010, and in Guinea-Conakry between 2010 and 2011.

In addition to this case of African ports, the PNF received a complaint in March 2025 from a pan-African collective for receiving and laundering assets in connection with several port concessions managed until 2022.

This complaint targets Vincent Bolloré and his son Cyrille, who succeeded him at the head of the family group, for accusations of receiving stolen goods in Cameroon, Ghana and Ivory Coast and money laundering in Togo and Guinea.