THE NEVER-ENDING WAR OF THE SAADE BROTHERS

Free translation of the article published in the French daily newspaper “Le Journal du Dimanche” of July 9th 2006.

JUSTICE. NEW INVESTIGATION ON THE CMA-CGM ACCOUNTS.
THE NEVER-ENDING WAR OF THE SAADE BROTHERS
(Michel Delean)

Similar to a greek tragedy, the war between the saade brothers has resumed.
Jacques and Johnny Saade, heirs of the syro-lebanese shipowner Rodolphe Saade, have co-managed the Compagnie Maritime d’Affretement (CMA) until 1996, the year during which the Compagnie Generale Maritime (CGM) has been privatized and subsequently caused their feud.
Today, Jacques, 69 years-old, the elder of the Saade brothers, based in Marseilles, controls the CMA-CGM group, third container shipping company in the world. The younger, Johnny, 64 years-old, based in Beirut, confirms that he has been despoilt and communicates with his brother exclusively through lawyers. We thought the conflict was over. But a legal investigation for false company accounts was discreetly launched in the end of May at the financial section of the Paris tribunal.
The investigation which targets CMA-CGM accounts, has been entrusted to the investigative judges Francoise Desset and Renaud Van Ruymbeke.
It follows Johnny Saade’s filing of a criminal lawsuit.
Johnny accuses his brother of taking the majority in CMA, followed by a misappropriation of CGM funds and finally fooling him in making him sign an agreement in Beirut in September 2000.
This transaction was aimed at ending their dispute, with Johnny selling his shares to Jacques for USD 40 million payable in various installments.
In 2003, Johnny felt that Jacques was delaying the payment of the last USD 5 million and that in view of CMA-CGM’s success, the amount of USD 40 million was not accurate.
The last few years, Johnny filed various lawsuits for misappropriation of company assets in Nanterre, racketeering and breach of trust in Marseille as well as in Syria and Lebanon. To no avail.
However, Johnny Saade and three of his lawyers –Me Christian Lestournelle, Jean-Pierre Gastaud and Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi- have found this time a new angle of attack in revealing the filing of false company accounts.They say that Johnny has been fooled in this respect and was led by Jacques in signing an agreement which revealed itself to be detrimental to its interests. In support of its new criminal lawsuit, Johnny Saade produced a report prepared in August 2005 reknown accounting expert William Nahum.
Unmoved, Me Olivier Metzner, lawyer of CMA-CGM and Jacques Saade, declares: “All the lawsuits filed by Johnny Saade have been unsuccessful. He is ready to make any accusation including in the context of penal lawsuits, in order to convince Jacques to indemnify him again”.
Jacques couter-attacked by filing a lawsuit for defamation against Johnny, following the latter dispatch of letters to members of parliament. As a result Johnny has been investigated by judge Jean-Louis Peries and deferred to the Paris correctional tribunal where his case will be dealt with in December.
Johnny Saade does not care. He is confident that the financial accounts of CMA-CGM are false: he has also participated as a civil party in a penal investigation for corruption against [CMA-CGM] in Egypt. The egyptian case broke out in the end of June in which officials of the port of Damietta, near Alexandria, are suspected to have received bribes from the French company, the latter trying to escape from paying taxes and duties on container unloading.
British and American authorities are following the matter closely. CMA-CGM categorically denies such allegations.