NY Times: French Ex-Premier Is Convicted of Graft

[La_Serpiente]

French Ex-Premier Is Convicted of Graft

PARIS, Jan. 30 — In a serious blow to President Jacques Chirac and the future of his governing party, former Prime Minister Alain Juppé was convicted Friday of corruption in a party scheme to create phony City Hall jobs here during part of Mr. Chirac's mayoralty.

Mr. Juppé, 58, one of Mr. Chirac's closest confidants and his preferred successor if he does not seek a third term, was sentenced to an 18-month suspended prison term and disqualified from public office for 10 years.

The sentence throws Mr. Chirac's center-right party, which Mr. Juppé heads, into turmoil just two months before regional midterm elections and, if upheld, would bar Mr. Juppé from seeking the presidency in 2007.

In an unadorned modern courtroom in the Paris suburb in Nanterre, the man whom Mr. Chirac once called "the most brilliant man of his generation" stood ramrod straight and silent as his name was called and the verdict was announced.

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French Ex-Premier Is Convicted of Graft

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[LARED]

1. Based on my experiences with European corporations

if graft is a crime, roughly 1/3 of the Europeans government work force would be in jail.

Graft or "doing business," or "regulatory compliance" are the pretty much the same thing in most if not all European countries.