THE French defense group Thalesone of the world’s largest, already under fire over corruption allegations, confirmed raids on its facilities in European countries as part of two probes into sales military equipment abroad.

The surveys were conducted on Wednesday and yesterday Friday at the headquarters of various companies of the group, at France, in Netherlands and to Spaina source in the judicial system told AFP, confirming information broadcast earlier yesterday by BFMTV.

According to this source, the operations “were carried out in the context of two preliminary investigations” into corruption and undue influence of a foreign official.

“The first began in late 2016” and involves charges of corruption of a “foreign official”, “private corruption”, “conspiracy and conspiracy” and “money laundering”, offenses linked to “the sale of submarines and the construction of a naval base in Brazil,” the judicial source clarified.

During an official visit by the then president of France Nicolas Sarkozy in Rio de Janeiro in 2008, France and Brazil signed a contract for the sale of four conventionally powered submarines, type Scorpeneagainst an amount that then reached 5.2 billion euros.

These submarines carried equipment from Thales, one of the largest defense groups on a global scale, which has, among other things, goods and services in areas such as aerospace, those of security, defense, land transport and so on. The three submarines have already been delivered.

The second aspect of the case concerns construction second naval base and submarine shipyard in Itaguailaunched in 2018.

According to the judicial source, the second investigation, which was not disclosed until now, began in June 2023.

In particular, it concerns suspicions of corruption and improper exercise of influence in exchange for compensation, corruption of a foreign official, private corruption, conspiracy and conspiracy, money laundering and embezzlement, in the context of various proceedings for the purpose of “selling military and political material abroad”.

According to the judicial source – who emphasized that “investigations are continuing” -, in the companies “65 OCLCIFF researchers participated” and “12 PNF judges“, while there was also “cooperation with the Dutch and Spanish judicial authorities and coordination of Eurojust”.

It referred in turn to the French central office for the prosecution of corruption and financial and fiscal crimes (Office central de lutte contre la corruption et les infractions financières et fiscales), the French financial prosecution (Parquet national financier) and the European Union Agency for Cooperation in the Criminal Justice Sector.

For its part, the company “confirms that investigations have been carried out”. “The group is cooperating with the competent authorities”, assured the French Agency last night.

THE Thales “reminds that it strictly complies with national and international regulations. The company has developed and implemented a global compliance program (…) which meets the highest industry standards,” the French multinational group insisted.

Thales was already facing suspicions of corruption.

A Paris judge is expected to decide soon whether to grant a request by the PNF, which has asked for a trial against Thales, DCNI (a subsidiary of Naval Group), three former top executives and an intermediary, as there are suspicions of corruption in the contract submarine sale agreement to Malaysia in 2002.

French prosecutors have also begun a preliminary investigation, revealed in May 2023, into whether there was corruption – which the French multinational denies – in the fighter modernization tender process. Mirage 2000 of the Indian Air Force.

Another investigation, which began in December 2020, concerns that a former executive of the French multinational assumed a key position in UNwhich is a customer of Thales.