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Macron's chief of staff indicted over link to shipping giant MSC

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The French President Emmanuel Macron's chief staff was indicted by the national criminal crimes prosecutor for a conflict of interests relating to his alleged connections with the Swiss-Italian shipping firm MSC, the prosecutor's Office said.

Alexis Kohler is Macron's most trusted and influential advisor. His indictment, a legal move that places him under formal investigation in France, is a blow.

It stated that Alexis Kohler (currently Secretary-General of France's presidency) was under formal investigation for illegal taking of interest.

Macron's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Le Figaro reported that Macron had chosen to keep Kohler at the job despite being investigated.

Macron's office previously stated that Kohler never concealed his family ties with the Aponte family, which founded and still owns MSC.

Anti-graft group Anticor brought a complaint against Kohler alleging that he broke conflict-of-interest rules. This was after it became clear that Kohler had family connections to MSC's Italian owners. Kohler had previously worked for them in between two government jobs.

MSC is a cruise ship operator and one of the largest clients of Chantiers de l'Atlantique in France, which makes the Queen Mary 2. The French government has attempted to restructure the Queen Mary 2 several times in the past decade.

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The complaint claims that Kohler was involved in conflicts of interest while working with MSC between 2012 and 2014. Later, Kohler worked for the French state holdings Agency in Paris. In 2014-2016, he also served as a senior official in Macron’s finance ministry team.

Kohler resigned from the finance ministry after Macron's 2016 resignation as economy minister. After leaving the finance ministry, Kohler moved to Geneva to join MSC's board. Following Macron's election in 2017, Kohler resigned from that position to join the Elysee nine months later.

French law states that a formal investigation is when there is evidence that implicates a suspect but not necessarily means that the person being investigated was charged.

If additional evidence is found against the person, they can be charged later or the investigation can be dropped.

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