J’accuse? Not any longer: Renault shifts into reverse on alleged espionage

Spies may be everywhere, but it now appears that, if there are any at Renault, they’re not among “Les Renault Trois”.

As The Wall Street Journal reported last week, Renault is trying to figure out how to back out of the accusations made against the three senior managers in their electric car division who were ousted in January. The claim was that they’d taken money in exchange for company development plans.

The firings followed a four-month investigation prompted by a letter from an “anonymous tipster”, claiming that:

… he had seen Michel Balthazard, head of the car firm's development projects and one of the company's most respected executives, negotiating a bribe.

The fired managers proclaimed their innocence – and they are now suing the company - but Renault’s CEO countered (on nationwide television, of course) that the company had solid evidence against the three.

Now, it seems that Renault is making noise – what’s the French equivalent of the nervous laugh heh-heh? – that they may be exonerating the men.

… Last week, Mr. [Patrick] Pélata [COO] said Renault was no longer certain that it had been the target of corporate espionage. He said it could have been "tricked" into bringing allegations against three senior managers.

The entire affaire may be a hoax perpetuated to “destabilize management.” (What’s the French equivalent of nervous laugh heh-heh?)  And Pélata may be asked to fall on his stick shift, or take the metaphorical exhaust pipe, as a result of the bungled investigation. So, sounds like, as hoaxes go, this one may have done its management-destabilizing best.

Renault was hoping to find the smoking engine gun by uncovering secret Swiss and Liechtensteiner bank accounts, where the bribe money was allegedly stashed. Authorities in those countries, however, have supposedly indicated (unofficially, so far) that there are no such secret bank accounts.

Meanwhile, Renault’s internal security is trying to figure out what happened to the $348K they gave to an Algeria-based private investigator in exchange for information on those alleged bank accounts. (Maybe they’ll find that he put some of it a Swiss or Liechtensteiner bank account.)

Renault doesn’t want to rush into exoneration too quickly, of course. As a company lawyer said

"We were heavily criticized for pulling the trigger too fast [on the three fired managers]…We don't want to do it again."

And Renault PR flack Caroline De Gezelle said that:

…she was not personally aware of any steps to exonerate the trio, but added: "It's quite normal that we prepare certain things according to different scenarios.”

Maybe something got lost in translation here, but is that excellent flack-speak or what?  The spin wheels must be madly spinning in the communications department at Renault as they prepare for those different scenarios.

Now that it seems as if Les Renault Trois will be freed – and wonder if they’ll actually take their jobs back, or just see what kind of settlement they can extract – the focus of the investigation is on who might the tipster/fraudster be.

…an official in Renault's security department who handled the in-house probe has so far refused to tell the company's top management, as well as police, from whom he received the information about the alleged bank accounts.

Doesn’t sound like much of a career move, but, hey, he’s protecting a source.

French prosecutors had hoped to get the DNA goods on the tipstser/fraudster from the saliva on the postage stamp that the anonymous letter came in. But, wouldn’t you know it, the perp used a self-stick stamp. C’est dommage.

This is more than just a fender-bender of an incident.

Renault is one of the best known companies in France, and the French government had gotten involved. They had hinted at France being the victim of an “economic war”. One trail they followed made a Chinese connection, which ruffled some diplomatic feathers.

If the three accused Renault managers do end up being exonerated – which seems increasingly likely – nothing can undo the personal and professional damage that has rained down on their windshields. Getting accused of, and fired for, selling your company’s secret must be like getting clubbed with a tire iron.

Still, if and when these men are cleared, and if and when the wheels come of the career of the Renault executive who gets to play test crash dummy and take the fall, I’d sure like to see the look on the faces of these guys. (What’s the French equivalent of HEH-HEH-HEH?)