Ex-French minister Rachida Dati faces court over purported €900,000 Renault-Nissan payouts

16 сентября 2026 г., 16:06

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Ex-French minister Rachida Dati faces court over purported €900,000 Renault-Nissan payouts

Rachida Dati, former French Minister of Justice and Minister of Culture, will stand trial on allegations of corruption for accepting 900,000 euro in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a subsidiary of Renault-Nissan.

Criminal proceedings began Wednesday against Rachida Dati, France’s former Minister of Justice and Minister of Culture, and currently the mayor of a Paris arrondissement over corruption allegations stemming from her alleged lobbying work for the Renault-Nissan car making group. 

Prosecutors accuse Dati of receiving 900,000 euros (over $1 million) between 2010 and 2012 for providing consulting services to a Dutch subsidiary of Renault-Nissan without actually performing any work, all while serving as a Member of the European Parliament and working as an attorney.

The former minister will stand trial for receiving the proceeds of abuse of authority and breach of trust, as well as for corruption and passive trading in influence committed by a person holding a public elective mandate within an international organization, the European Parliament.

She stands trial alongside co-defendant Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Renault-Nissan. Ghosn faces charges including abuse of corporate assets, breach of trust, corruption, and active trading in influence. 

The Franco-Lebanese executive made headlines in 2019 when he famously fled Japan hidden inside an audio equipment box aboard a private jet while facing legal proceedings in Japan in separate cases linked to undeclared incomes to securities regulators and for aggravated breach of trust

Ghosn faces several charges in France, including abuse of authority by a corporate officer, breach of trust, corruption, and active trading in influence. The former Nissan chairman has been living as a fugitive in Lebanon since fleeing Japan in 2019.  

Rachida Dati’s defense team informed OCCRP that the hearing is “eagerly awaited.”

“The defense will demonstrate that Rachida Dati worked exclusively as a lawyer for the RNBV Alliance and that the baseless accusations of alleged influence-peddling at the European Parliament are an artificial construct of the prosecution,” the team said.

The court proceedings in Paris are scheduled to run through September 28.

The trial coincides with reports in French media that Dati has requested to be reinstated in the judiciary after her two-decade political career, without having practiced.

This request led to a proposal to reinstate her as a deputy prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice, assigned to the European Affairs Delegation.

The High Council of the Judiciary must now issue its opinion.