PARIS (Reuters) -The Paris appeals court has postponed delivering its verdict this week over the so-called Tapie affair concerning a disputed payment made by the state in 2008 after the death of French tycoon Bernard Tapie, a judicial source said on Monday.
A French prosecutor in June told judges that Orange’s boss Stephane Richard should face three years in jail for his alleged involvement the disputed compensation.
Richard has denied the allegations, saying he was doing his job and only played a secondary role in the arbitration process in which Tapie was awarded 403 million euros in the state-funded settlement.
The Orange CEO is accused of complicity in the disputed payment. He was working as chief of staff to then-finance minister Christine Lagarde when it was made.
Tapie, who died on Sunday, had been accused of having fraudulently won the arbitration process. He had also denied wrongdoing.
The verdict was initially scheduled for Oct. 6.
The source added that the judges would give their verdict “shortly”, without providing a time frame.
($1 = 0.8594 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain, Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Alison Williams)
