France eyes relationship of chief of staff, MSC

Investigators want to see if Macron’s right-hand man promoted interests of shipping company.    Anticor, a French organization that says it was created to fight corruption, said French prosecutors have opened an inquiry in response to its call to find out whether Alexis Kohler, now chief of staff to French President Emmanuel Macron and a former executive at Mediterranean Shipping Co., may have breached conflict of interest rules when he was a senior member of France’s economy ministry and promoted the interests of MSC.
   Kohler is identified by Bloomberg as becoming the chief financial officer of MSC in between his current job and working as economy minister for the previous government of Francois Hollande.
   According to Agence France Presse, French prosecutors will “check whether Kohler respected conflict of interest rules for civil servants as he ‘could have dealt with issues of interest’ to MSC,” the second-largest container shipping company and a major cruise ship operator. The news agency also reported “Kohler’s mother is a cousin of Rafaela Aponte, whose husband Gianlugi founded” MSC.
   Bloomberg reported, “France’s financial prosecutor, known as the Parquet National Financier, said on Monday it opened the probe following news reports alleging that he worked on files that were of direct interest to MSC before being hired by the company.”
   MSC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Bloomberg said the shipping company “isn’t accused of any wrongdoing.”
   AFP wrote, “The media-shy Kohler, 45, is known for his close personal relationship with the president and was once described as ‘the last person Macron talks to at night and the first one in the morning’ by an aide who knows both men.” The news agency said in 2016 he left the economy ministry, where he worked for Macron, to join MSC, but also worked on Macron’s bid for the presidency in his spare time.