Ex-first lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy accused of fraud and witness tampering, faces up to 20 years in prison

Former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is the latest person to be dragged into the campaign finance scandal swirling around her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Earlier this month, Bruni-Sarkozy, 56, was charged with fraud and witness tampering related to up to $54 million that former Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy allegedly gave to Sarkozy in illegal campaign contributions for his winning 2007 presidential campaign, according to French newspaper Le Monde.

Sarkozy, 69, was president of France between 2007 and 2012. Khadafy was assassinated in Libya in 2011.

The former first lady, who is also a singer/songwriter and once dated Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger as well as Eric Clapton, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, as the charges can carry punishments of up to 10 years each.

According to Le Monde, Bruni-Sarkozy has also been barred by the court from speaking to others involved in the case apart from her husband.

Her lawyer, Paul Mallet, did not return a request for comment Monday.

Other figures have since become embroiled in the scandal, including a businesswoman dubbed “the high priestess of paparazzi” and a Lebanese entrepreneur and arms dealer who is Amal Clooney’s uncle.

The investigation into the campaign finance payments began in 2013, two years after one of Khadafy’s sons, Saif al-Islam, accused Sarkozy of taking millions from his father to finance his presidential campaign.

A year later, French Lebanese businessman and Clooney uncle Ziad Takieddine backed that claim.

Takieddine, 74, told French judges he had proof that Khadafy financed the campaign and that millions more continued to roll into the Elysée Palace after Sarkozy became president.

Takieddine — an arms dealer who fled France for Lebanon after being sentenced to five years in prison by a court there for taking kickbacks from one of his deals, according to news service AFP — retracted his statements in 2020.

Takieddine’s about-face raised suspicions that Sarkozy, his wife and others in their camp may have paid him to change his mind.

According to prosecutors, the retraction was at the behest of Michele “Mimi” Marchand, a French businesswoman known as “the high priestess of paparazzi” and the doyenne of the celebrity press in France.

She is known to be close to current first lady Brigitte Macron, and was at one point a publicity adviser to her and President Emmanuel Macron.

Marchand, 77, started her own paparazzi agency after being fired from the French gossip magazine Voici, which said she had fabricated a “world exclusive” interview with Princess Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones.

The magazine retracted the interview, but Marchand has continued to insist it was real despite not being able to provide any proof it took place.

Reese-Jones was the only survivor of the August 1997 Paris car crash that killed the British royal, her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed and their driver.

Prosecutors indicted Marchand for witness tampering and conspiracy to commit fraud in 2021 following negotiations that they claim she held with Takieddine before making his public retraction, according to Le Monde. Shortly after, her lawyer denied any wrongdoing on her behalf.

The arrest outraged Macron, who said, “You can’t put people in prison like that,” in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “I don’t understand … That’s reserved for dangerous people.”

After a brief spell in jail, Marchand was released but remains under indictment.

In June, Bruni-Sarkozy allegedly deleted text messages she had exchanged with Marchand, according to France 24.

Sarkozy has been the subject of a handful of criminal probes since losing the presidential election in 2012 and is scheduled to go on trial in the Khadafy campaign finance case next year.

The former president has been found guilty of getting illegal funding for his 2012 re-election campaign and he was also given a suspended sentence last year for attempting to bribe a judge, according to the BBC.

Those crimes will be reviewed by France’s Supreme Court.

Sarkozy is a twice-divorced father of four. He married the Italian-born Bruni in 2008, shortly after divorcing his second wife, Cecilia, in 2007.