TotalEnergies CEO Pouyanné topic of preliminary battle of curiosity probe

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PARIS — Patrick Pouyanné, chief government of France’s TotalEnergies, is the topic of a preliminary investigation into alleged battle of curiosity, the French monetary prosecutor’s workplace mentioned on Wednesday, confirming earlier studies.

The probe was opened following a grievance filed on the finish April by the French arm of Greenpeace, in addition to by anti-corruption group ANTICOR, and an affiliation known as La Sphinx, which says it represents college students and alumni of the college.

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The board of the distinguished Ecole Polytechnique voted in 2018 to permit TotalEnergies to construct a analysis and innovation middle on the college’s campus in Saclay, south of Paris.

The grievance alleged that Pouyanné used his place on the college’s board to affect that call.

“There have by no means been any crossovers between my place as CEO of TotalEnergies and my membership of Polytechnique’s board (…) The TotalEnergies analysis middle undertaking in Saclay was launched earlier than I joined the Polytechnique board,” Pouyanné mentioned in an e-mail despatched to Reuters.

He added he by no means participated in board discussions associated to the undertaking, aside from the one time when he was requested by the chairman of the board to provide TotalEnergies’ view on the undertaking.

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“On this context, it’s outrageous to assert I might have been in a battle of curiosity place, not to mention {that a} legal offense might have been dedicated,” Pouyanné mentioned.

TotalEnergies additionally mentioned that Polytechnique had determined final yr to construct the middle, which can home as much as 300 researchers, exterior its personal premises.

TotalEnergies, together with different main power producers, has been underneath scrutiny from inexperienced teams that say the business is including to local weather change by selling the usage of carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Enhancing by Edmund Blair and Louise Heavens)