France launches investigation against Cifal, a French trading company operating in Russia, on suspicion of bribery involving a foreign government official.

Law enforcers suspect that Cifal received orders from the Congolese company Orion, under the leadership of Lucien Ebat, special adviser to Congo-Brazzaville President Danny Sassou Nguesso, to find an investor in Russia to sell him oil fields in the Congo.

In turn, the head of Cifal, Gilles Remy, turned to the French politician and former Prime Minister Francois Fillon with a request to put him in touch with a Russian businessman with whom Fillon was in contact when he headed the government. In this contract, Fillon received remuneration as a party to the agreement.

Official suspicion of corruption, according to the source, he has not yet received.

At the same time, Francois Fillon, who at one time served on two boards of directors of large Russian groups - Sibur (petrochemistry) and Zarubezhneft (hydrocarbons), will hear on May 2 about his connections with Moscow, a specially created commission to investigate foreign interference.

Francois Fillon announced his resignation from the board of directors of Sibur and Zarubezhneft on February 25, 2022.

Lucien Ebat, as part of a judicial investigation opened by the prosecutor's office in 2020, was accused in Paris, in particular, of money laundering and corruption. Investigators are trying to find out if he is involved in Congolese oil money.