Ex-executive testifies against Elf Aquitaine

The former No. 2 man of Elf Aquitaine testified that a large part of some $ 50 mm withdrawn from the French oil giant's accounts went toward financing French political parties. The amount cited by Alfred Sirven was far more than the $ 5 mm that former president Loik Le Floch-Prigent had said went to political parties during his years at the helm, from 1989 to 1993.
The testimony was the latest in a corruption trial that has rattled France's elite and drawn in President Jacques Chirac's former party and even African leaders. Chirac's office has not had an immediate comment on the case.

The trial, which started in mid-March, focuses on allegations the oil giant, the forerunner of today's TotalFinaElf, paid and received enormous commissions. Sirven is one of 37 people on trial in the case. A previous corruption case centred on Elf -- one of the world's largest oil companies -- ended in January.
Sirven, 76, did not provide details, or explain what happened to the rest of the more than $ 150 mm that allegedly went missing from the coffers of Elf Aquitaine in the early 1990s. "I was alone. I had no financial director," Sirven testified. "So there was some disorder in these accounts." Sirven conceded that some money went into his own pockets while a large part of the $ 50 mm went to French political parties.

Le Floch-Prigent, 59, had told the court on March 31 that nearly all of the $ 5 mm he claimed to be aware of went to Chirac's former party, until then-President Francois Mitterrand, a Socialist, demanded the cash be spread to both sides of the political spectrum.
Chirac, a conservative, succeeded Mitterrand as president in 1995. The man once known within Elf as "Mr Africa," Andre Tarallo, took care of parties on the right, Le Floch-Prigent claimed, while Sirven handled leftist parties.
Le Floch-Prigent had testified March 19 that African leaders with whom Elf did business were among the beneficiaries of lucrative commissions. Sirven, referring to the messy state of his accounts, saidhe destroyed accounting records before fleeing Europe in 1996, going first to the Caribbean then to the Philippines to escape French justice. He was arrested in the Philippines in 2001.

Sirven received a three-year sentence in the earlier Elf-related trial and risks 10 years if found guilty again for his alleged role in the embezzling. Floch-Prigent faces a myriad of charges, including abuse of company funds, publication of false information and presentation of inaccurate accounts. He risks a five-year sentence if found guilty.
He is already serving a 30-month term from the earlier Elf-related case whose star defendant was former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, who won an appeal on his conviction for accepting expensive gifts from a former mistress working for Elf.