Eight managers of Bourbon, a company specializing in maritime services to the oil industry, appeared on Monday before the Marseille Criminal Court. They are being prosecuted for bribing foreign public officials in Africa, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.

L'affaire avait débuté en octobre 2012 with the discovery of 250,000 dollars in 100-dollar bills in the frame of the suitcase of Marc Cherqui, Bourbon fiscal director, by customs officials at Marseille-Provence airport. According to the charge, in Nigeria, the delivery of two million dollars to the director of tax services and 700,000 dollars to auditors would have increased the tax adjustment from 227 to four million dollars. In Cameroon, a bribe of 150,000 euros for the benefit of two local tax inspectors would have made a tax debt of 11 million euros disappear. And in Equatorial Guinea, the payment of 400,000 euros to an intermediary would have allowed an initial recovery of 8 million euros to be reduced to 44,849 euros. The case will be heard until May 31.