The governor of the Banque de France says justice has been done, writesLara Marlowe, in Paris
A French high court yesterday cleared Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Banque de France, of wrongdoing in the Crédit Lyonnais bank scandal, making it possible for him to succeed Mr Wim Duisenberg as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) this summer.
Rarely has the continuation of a brilliant career hinged so totally on a court verdict.
Mr Trichet (61), was charged with "spreading false information on the market and presenting and publishing inexact accounts" relating to the then state-owned bank between 1991 and the first half of 1993.
As director of the French Treasury at the time, he was one of several high-ranking civil servants responsible for supervising Crédit Lyonnais.
The prosecution had recommended that Mr Trichet be given a 10-month suspended sentence. This would have scuppered his chances of replacing Mr Duisenberg as president of the ECB, as decided in a compromise agreement between France and Germany in May 1998.
During a six-week trial early this year, the prosecution attempted to prove that the former president of Crédit Lyonnais, Mr Jean-Yves Haberer, and two former managing directors of the bank falsified accounts and distributed unearned dividends at the behest of their administrative overseers at the Treasury and central bank.
But three high court judges rejected that thesis, sentencing the Crédit Lyonnais defendants to fines and suspended prison sentences, and acquitting six others.
"The tribunal considered that those responsible were the three top people at Crédit Lyonnais, and that the auditors and higher authorities were not incriminated," explained Mr Bernard du Granrut, one of Mr Trichet's lawyers.
In a 59-page document justifying their verdict, the judges wrote that, as director of the Treasury, Mr Trichet "disposed only of imprecise or incorrect information" on the billions of francs in losses at the Crédit Lyonnais.
In any case, the judges added, Mr Trichet and his deputy "did not participate personally in the drawing up of said accounts".
Mr Trichet sat next to fellow accused Mr Jacques de Larosière, who was governor of the Banque de France at the time, in the front row of the courtroom. They and their lawyers stood as the verdict was read. Neither Mr Trichet nor Mr de Larosière showed the slightest reaction.
After consulting his lawyers, Mr Trichet emerged from the courtroom to be mobbed by photographers and television cameramen.
True to his reputation as a cautious model of sobriety and rigour, Mr Trichet made no display of emotion, although the cloud that has hung over him since proceedings were initiated seven years ago had lifted.
"Three years and two months ago, when I learned that I was going to be charged, I made the information public myself," he said. "I said that I and those who worked with me had done everything in our power, under the instructions of the government of the French Republic, to set right a difficult situation. I said I had confidence in justice. Justice has spoken."
As journalists continued to crowd around him, a smile slowly crept onto the face of France's first banker. Asked how he felt, he momentarily hesitated. "I couldn't not say that, in fact, this is a decision of justice that. . ." - there was a pause while Mr Trichet searched for the appropriate word - ". . .moves me".
Mr Trichet has always refused to comment on his candidacy for the ECB job, which will become vacant when Mr Duisenberg steps down on his 68th birthday on July 9th.
"Obviously, I leave it completely up to the heads of state and government [of the euro zone]," he said. European leaders could have approved Mr Trichet's appointment at the Thessaloniki summit this weekend but the prosecution, in theory, has 10 days to appeal.
