Embezzlement-accused French media scion reinstated as CEO

Arnaud Lagardere's company has eroded since he inherited it from his father. Photo: JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/File
Source: AFP

French media baron Arnaud Lagardere, who resigned from running the sprawling group of the same name in April over embezzlement charges, was reinstated as chief executive Friday after a favourable court decision, the company said.

Lagardere, who sold the firm built by his father to media giant Vivendi in November, had been temporarily barred from holding management positions over alleged misuse of corporate funds at some of his companies not belonging to Lagardere group.

Now he has secured the "partial lifting of the ban measure" in a court ruling, Largardere SA said in a statement.

A judicial source confirmed to AFP that the 63-year-old is within his rights to return to the top seat, despite being charged with embezzlement.

It was "a very great joy for me to resume as chief executive of the group that bears my name," Lagardere himself said in the statement.

As well as thanking other company chiefs, he added a special note of gratitude to "our shareholders, and particularly the largest among them, the Bollore family".

Billionaire Vincent Bollore, owner of a news station dubbed France's Fox news among other conservative outlets, controls Lagardere SA's owner Vivendi and is a close friend of Lagardere himself.

The November sale of the company to Vivendi completed the gradual erosion of the group Lagardere inherited from his father Jean-Luc in 2003.

Once a vast empire from publishing to aerospace, Lagardere SA still operates the profitable Relay chain of airport and train station stores, airport duty-free shops and major performance venues.

Its media operations include radio station Europe 1, Sunday paper the Journal du dimanche and France's top book publisher Hachette.

Source: AFP