Taiwan wins damages over French defence sale

France’s arms industry was under scrutiny after an arbitration court ordered the payment of €630m ($820m) in damages to Taiwan over a controversial defence sale that has dogged politicians in Paris and Taipei for two decades.The ruling comes as France faces allegations of bribery over the sale of submarines to Malaysia in 2002 and as questions are being raised over a similar deal with Pakistan in the 1990s.

Thales and the French state were fined over commissions linked to a sale of six Lafayette class frigates to Taiwan in 1991, in breach of the contract banning the use of intermediaries.Thales, at the time known as Thomson-CSF, is liable for 27.5 per cent of the fine, in line with its share of the contract, and the French state is responsible for the balance.The frigate affair was even used in the Clearstream smear scandal that pitched French President Nicolas Sarkozy against his arch-rival Dominique de Villepin, over claims that kickbacks from the deal ended up in accounts – later proved to be forged – of senior French politicians............................................Read More

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