Jacques Be Nimble

Will Michel Roussin crack? the political future of President Jacques Chirac may hang on that question, as French magistrates pursue their investigation of an elaborate party funding scheme that allegedly netted $80 million in kickbacks on public works contracts while Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. In recent weeks, testimony by key witnesses has pointed to the central role of one man as organizer and orchestrator of the system: Roussin, 61, former officer in the gendarmes, ex-cabinet minister and, from 1989 to 1993, Chirac's right-hand man in the Paris City Hall.

Arrested and placed under formal investigation on Nov. 30, Roussin was released on bail from Paris' Sante prison six days later after refusing to answer interrogators' questions. Worried officials at the Elysee Palace hope the ramrod-straight ex-military officer will continue to stonewall, since he appears to be the last buffer between the investigators and the President.

Chirac was already under pressure following the publication last September of allegations, based on a videotaped account by a now-deceased former official, that the ex-mayor was involved in a financing scheme linked to construction contracts for low-income housing. The current investigation concerns the awarding of contracts to build or renovate schools in the Paris region.

The way it worked, according to testimony leaked to the French press, is that construction firms in the early 1990s were awarded lucrative contracts on condition that they donate 2% to 3% of the amount to Chirac's Gaullist RPR and other political parties. Corporate donations were legal until 1995, but linking them to such a quid pro quo arrangement would constitute corruption. The key question: whether or not Chirac, as mayor and RPR chief, knew that the gifts were a payback for the contracts a link that remains to be demonstrated.

Though Roussin is holding his tongue for now, others are not. Louise-Yvonne Casetta, a former unofficial treasurer for the RPR, has testified that Roussin kept Chirac informed about the "company gifts" to the party. But Casetta's lawyer insists that Chirac was told only about legal donations, not about any links to construction contracts. Gilbert Sanans, former head of an RPR-related consulting firm, was released from prison last week after detailing Roussin's central role in handing out contracts and dividing up the spoils. Other witnesses gave similar testimony.

As pressure mounted on Chirac, maverick Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg went so far as to call for impeachment proceedings. Chirac's supporters charge that the President is the victim of a political ploy aimed at his credibility before the 2002 presidential elections. But Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Chirac's likely challenger in 2002, is hardly in a position to exploit the situation: according to witness testimony, the Socialist Party, like its Communist coalition partner and the center-right Republican Party, allegedly received a share of the rake-off as well.

Chirac is unlikely to be impeached and as long as he is President cannot be prosecuted in an ordinary tribunal, though he could be asked to testify as a witness. "Juridically, he faces no risk," says Guy Carcassonne, a professor of constitutional law at Nanterre University, "but politically it's disastrous. The continuing investigation will feed a constant flow of judicial news that can only be bad for him."

For that reason, many people within the Gaullist ranks and 69% of the public in a recent poll want the President to speak out publicly about the scandal. Last week, he skirted reporters' questions by saying he was concentrating all his energies on the Nice summit that would cap the French presidency of the European Union. But most observers predict that sooner or later he will have to address the issue. "But that won't stop the process," says political commentator Alain Duhamel. "The critiques and the debates will continue. We're now in a phase of political explanation and confrontation. This is an enormous affair."

Duhamel and others say it is too early to tell how the current investigation will impact on the 2002 election the latest polls put Chirac and Jospin neck-and-neck but the President's image has been tarnished, and the emergence of rival candidates in the conservative camp won't help. Like Richard Nixon, Chirac bounced back from repeated setbacks to claim the presidency he had always dreamed of. The question is whether he too will lose that prize in the face of a relentless investigation.


1. Watership Down
With President Vladimir Putin planning to revamp the floundering Russian fleet, the pressure was on for the 150-m nuclear submarine to shine in August naval exercises. Two explosions later, the pride of the flotilla was powerless on the bottom, while the Russian spin machine was in overdrive declining initial offers for help that came too late to save the 118 men on board.

2. Lies and Videotape
Alberto Fujimori stood up to drug dealers, terrorists and an uncooperative Senate for almost a decade. So he had to break a few rules what are civil liberties, after all, to a so-called "democratic dictator"? The Peruvian people finally objected, however, to blatant, unapologetic corruption. Fujimori now cowers in Japan, ousted after video footage surfaced showing his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos bribing a congressman.

3. Madder than Ever
Au revoir, filet mignon; bye-bye headcheese. The bovine affliction known as "mad cow disease" has spread to the Continent, and consumers, frustrated with the E.U.'s slow response, are avoiding beef like, um, the plague. Thus far, 81 people in Britain and three in France have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease brought on by consuming contaminated beef.

4. Eureka!
Shinichi Fujimura had a reputation for discovering significant historical ruins. Revered for his talent, he was said to have "the fingers of God." Turns out he also had a "spade of deception." An undercover TV crew revealed that the archaeologist-cum-scam-artist was burying prehistoric stoneware at ruins in Hokkaido and Miyagi prefecture only to unearth them later.

5. Dirty Dairy
We thought the whole point of milk was that you put up with the mucus-causing beverage because it was good for you. Then Snow Brand, Japan's largest dairy company, accidentally infested its skim milk products with bacteria, causing nearly 15,000 serious tummy aches in Japan this past June. Plant workers moles from the soy industry? were in the act as well, routinely printing false production dates to palm off excess inventory.

6. Sharp Practice
Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi sacked his 33-member cabinet after they spent $250 million on Mercedes Benz cars money Britain claims it donated in aid. Three of the former ministers are being investigated for a $25 million fraud guess the aid money wasn't enough to get customized rims.

7. Symphoney
Hong Kong has long been touted as a knock-off center. It was the perfect market, then, for a ragtag group of freelance Russian musicians posing as the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra who booked themselves into the Hong Kong Cultural Center for a series of concerts in August. Thousands of music lovers paid $30 each to see the shows only to learn that the real MPO had spent the summer on tour in Europe.

8. Organ Horde
Alder Hay children's hospital in Liverpool was keeping secrets and livers, kidneys and fetuses. It had been stock-piling organs from 800 dead children and storing 400 fetuses without parental consent. Perhaps overdue regulations for organ removal, storage and disposal are now called for.

9. Tainted Water Tragedy
Walkerton, Ontario, laid claim to the deadliest outbreak of E. coli contamination in North America, which left seven people dead and more than 2,000 ill. A combination of budget cuts, offloading of testing responsibilities and poor agricultural practices contributed to Walkerton becoming the dirty-water capital of the world.

10. All in the Family
Indonesian millionaire playboy Tommy Suharto son of ousted President Suharto now has a new role: fugitive. Still in hiding to evade an 18-month prison sentence after a conviction in a $11 million land scam, Tommy is the latest in a long line of fall guys for his disgraced father's regime.