Carla Bruni is being questioned by the police as a suspect in a major corruption case: the model is said to have tried to ‘whitewash’ her husband over accusations that he had accepted millions in cash from Colonel Gaddafi

Former French first lady and supermodel Carla Bruni was questioned by police today as a suspect in a major corruption case.

The 56-year-old is said to have tried to ‘whitewash’ her husband, former President Nicolas Sarkozy, 69, over allegations that he accepted millions in cash from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Bruni, who denies any wrongdoing, visited the Paris office of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes on Thursday.

“Her status is an open suspect,” said a source close to the case. “She has spoken to officers before, but not as a suspect in a case in which she is accused of trying to launder her husband.”

Bruni is a close friend of Mimi Marchand – a French media fixer who is under formal investigation for ‘witness tampering’ and ‘criminal corruption’.

Marchand, 77 and nicknamed “The Paparazzi Queen,” is accused of paying former French-Lebanese arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, 74, to drop a sworn will that he had arranged for Colonel Gaddafi to transfer millions of dollars to Sarkozy would pay.

During an interview published four years ago in Paris Match magazine, Takieddine retracted his claim that suitcases filled with cash had been delivered to Sarkozy’s colleagues.

The money was used to finance the 2007 election campaign in which Sarkozy won his only term as president of France, it was claimed.

Sarkozy used the 2020 interview to falsely claim he was acquitted because “the truth is out.”

But Marchand – who also denies any wrongdoing – allegedly offered Takieddine incentives to change his story, according to prosecutors.

The case involving Bruni is called ‘Operation Save Sarko’ and runs parallel to the Libyan financing case, in which Sarkozy has already been charged.

Takieddine, who is currently in Lebanon, is said to have received the equivalent of up to £4 million to ‘change his story’, according to the prosecutor.

Bruni has consistently denied any involvement in ‘Operation Save Sarko’ and says she is trying to avoid lawsuits involving her husband, who is already a twice-convicted criminal.

She said: ‘When people talk to me about it, I get into a situation of anger and resentment that is of no use to my husband.’

Bruni added: “I have not the slightest curiosity about my husband’s affairs.”

But investigators say Bruni deleted all messages she exchanged with Marchand through the encrypted Signal app before Marchand’s indictment in June 2021.

It has also emerged that when Marchand traveled to Beirut to visit Takieddine in October 2020, at the height of the global Covid crisis, Bruni helped ‘fix’ a positive medical test for her .

“It is alleged that this would help Marchand in the Save Sarko operation,” said an investigating source.

One of Bruni’s guards sent her a text message at the time saying, “Ma’am, this case has been resolved for Tuesday morning, 48 hours before their departure to Lebanon.”

According to the investigative news site Mediapart, Sarkozy himself told investigators in October: “My wife is helping Mrs. Marchand while she pleases her friend so she can go on a trip.”

Sarkozy continued: “You ask me if Carla Bruni knew about the trip to Lebanon? Yes, I can’t dispute it, but did she know that Mr. Takieddine had been sentenced to prison? No. Did she know he had run away or was in Beirut? No.’

The flamboyant Takieddine is – just like Marchand – someone who has numerous contacts with celebrities and even claims to be Amal Clooney’s uncle.

During a hearing in the French courts in April 2014, Takieddine asked for a supervision order to be lifted so he could attend a London party celebrating the wedding of his ‘niece’, then called Amal Alamuddin, to American actor George Clooney.

Takieddine has since repeatedly mentioned his family relationship with Amal Clooney – who was born in Beirit – although Clooney has not confirmed this.

Sarkozy has been charged with corruption, ‘illegal financing of an election campaign’, ‘receiving embezzled public funds’ and ‘criminal conspiracy’ in connection with the Gaddafi scandal, and will appear in court next year.

Three of his former ministers – Brice Hortefeux, Claude Guéant and Éric Woerth – are also under investigation.

In January, Sarkozy failed to overturn a criminal conviction and prison sentence for illegally financing his re-election campaign.

His lawyers had asked the Court of Appeal in Paris to revoke a one-year prison sentence, with six months suspended, but the judges ruled no.

It followed a five-week trial at the city’s criminal court three years ago, when Sarkozy was found guilty of tampering with the books during his failed 2012 bid to become head of state.

Sarkozy, who served as France’s president for five years until 2012, served his sentence wearing an electronic tag at the Paris home he shares with Bruni.

In March 2021, Sarkozy was also convicted of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended.

Sarkozy’s conservative predecessor as president of France, the late Jacques Chirac, was given a two-year suspended sentence for corruption in 2011, but this was related to his time as mayor of Paris.

The last French head of state to go to a prison cell was Marshal Philippe Pétain, the wartime Nazi collaborator.