Mitterrand was born in
Boulogne-Billancourt,
Hauts-de-Seine. He was a press correspondent for the
Agence France Presse in 1975 in
Mauritania.
Angolagate In the 1990s, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, along with Russian businessman
Arcadi Gaydamak, was implicated in the
Angolagate arms dealing scandal. He was indicted in 1993 by the
French justice in this case, suspected of having used his influence to help
Pierre Falcone sell Russian weapons to
José Eduardo dos Santos's government (Angola). On 22 December 2000, he was imprisoned in the
Santé prison in Paris, on orders of the magistrate
Philippe Courroye, on charges of "complicity of arms traffic, ''trafic d'influence
(influence peddling) and trafic d'influence aggravé'' (aggravated
influence peddling)." He was suspected of having received important sums of money in 1993 and 1994 for his role as an intermediary in this contract, and has recognized having received US$1.8 million (13 million Francs) from the
Brenco on a
Swiss bank account—although he denied any participation to an arms deal. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was freed three weeks later, on 11 January 2001, after his mother,
Danielle Mitterrand, managed to post a bail 5 million francs (€762,000). However, he was indicted again on July 4, 2001, on charges of "complicity of arms traffic" by the magistrates Philippe Courroye and
Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, following a complaint filed in January 2001 by the
Socialist Minister of Defence Alain Richard. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was again indicted on 17 October 2001, for corruption by
investigative judge Courroye, suspected of having received US$300,000 from the Brenco in payment of councils to Falcone. On the eve of this new indictment, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand filed a complaint against Judge Courroye accusing him of having made a "false" document in July 2000 (because Courroye had put the date of 3 July for an ordinance drafted on 5 July)—but this manoeuver did not stop the procedure. On 13 January 2006, the
Court of Appeal of Paris confirmed the initial sentence. On 27 October 2006, the
Court of Cassation rejected Mitterrand's appeal, and confirmed his 30-month prison sentence on
probation, along with a €600,000 fine for
tax evasion (
fraude fiscale) because of €600,000 received from Falcone but not declared to the
Fisc tax administration. == References ==