Loik Le Floch-Prigent, ex-oil CEO, extradited to Togo for suspected fraud
Former Elf chief executive, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, poses on August 20, 2012 in the garden of his house in the French northwestern city of Trebeurden, on the Atlantic coast. Loik Le Floch-Prigent published a book entitled ‘Granit Rosse’ written during his imprisonment related to the Elf affair, a corruption scandal for which he had already twice been sentenced to five years and 30 months in prison for fraud involving a fake jobs scheme at the French oil giant, now part of the French group Total.
Loik Le Floch-Prigent, former CEO of international oil firm Elf, has been extradited to Togo from the Ivory Coast on suspicion of being involved in a massive fraud scheme.
The 69-year-old ex-executive was held on Saturday over a complaint filed by an an Emirati businessman who claims he was the victim of a $48 million fraud, Agence France Presse reported.
Le Floch-Prigent's lawyer Patrick Klugman denounced the extradition as being politically motivated.
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"[This is] an abduction and in no way an extradition, because my client was arrested and handed over to the Togolese authorities without the intervention of any judicial authority," Klugman said. "My client is the object of an internal Togolese political affair and I am not convinced that he is really being held over an embezzlement probe."
Le Floch-Prigent has already served a five-year sentence for corruption in France, after he was convicted of embezzling over $350 million in public funds during his time at Elf, BBC News reported.
He currently works as an oil industry consultant, AFP reported, and is expected to appear before a Togolese court on Monday.