Just as Jean-Marie Messier is about to get booted from his posh New York digs, some unwanted visitors showed up yesterday at his homes in France.
French authorities raided the disgraced former Vivendi chief’s apartment in Paris and his home in Rambouillet, just outside the city, looking for documents as part of their investigation into possible financial shenanigans during his reign.
The police also raided Vivendi’s offices near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the company confirmed in a statement yesterday. Vivendi said it was cooperating with police, and also said in the statement that it was a “plaintiff claiming damages in these proceedings,” suggesting the company has taken legal action against Messier.
A spokesman in Paris declined to elaborate.
It was the second time that authorities had raided Vivendi’s offices – investigators tossed the place last July – but the first time that Messier’s residences had been targeted.
Police also reportedly searched the offices of Cegetel, Vivendi’s telecom division.
Yesterday’s raids were the latest chapter in the ongoing financial drama left over from the Messier era. Since July, the COB, the French equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been probing how the company accounted for a complicated transaction with British Sky Broadcasting. News Corp., which owns The Post, controls British Sky Broadcasting.
Later, in October, Paris prosecutors opened a probe into the company’s financial disclosure practices under Messier. This probe was trigged by a French shareholder association that charged that Messier gave misleading financial information to artificially prop up the share price.
Authorities in the U.S. also are investigating the company. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Manhattan and the SEC’s Miami office opened investigations in November.
The company has said it is cooperating fully and has denied any wrongdoing, as has its auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Vivendi also faces several shareholder lawsuits in the U.S. and France over Messier’s alleged mismanagement of the company. One allegation included in these suits charges that Messier, without the approval of the board, lost several hundred million dollars from unhedged options transactions with Vivendi stock.
Messier was ousted from the company in July, after his spate of dealmaking piled on about $19 billion in debt and brought the company close to bankruptcy.
His replacement, Jean-Rene Fourtou, has been selling assets and securing bank credits to buck up the company’s financial health.
Meanwhile, Messier – who was denied any severance and is being forced out of his Vivendi-owned penthouse on Park Avenue – has been trying to restore his reputation.
He recently published a book in France – titled “Mon Vrai Journal” ( “My True Diary”) – but placed little blame for Vivendi’s downfall on himself.
Instead, he called his ouster a “lynching,” orchestrated in part by the Bronfman family.
Do you have a reum?
Disgraced ex-Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier got a surprise visit from French inspectors looking for:
* Evidence it falsified balance sheets for 2000 and 2001
* Documents showing it misled investors about its financial outlook 2001 and 2002
* An audit Jean-Rene Fourtou requested when he replaced Messier as CEO