Mohed Altrad the billionaire owner of the Altrad Group has been handed an 18-month suspended jail term after he was found guilty of rugby-related corruption.
Mohed the French scaffolding giant who according to Forbes is worth 3.3 billion was found guilty along with French Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte of corruption in the award of rugby shirt sponsorship deals to Altrad.
It was alleged that Mohed had conspired with Bernard Laporte to make his company the official front-of-shirt sponsor for the French national rugby team in exchange for a €180,000 payment in 2017.
Judges in Paris found the pair guilty and gave Mohed an 18-month suspended sentence and a €50,000 fine, Laporte received a two-year suspended prison sentence and €75,000 fine.
Both men have denied any wrongdoing, while Mr Altrad’s lawyer said his client will consider whether to appeal the verdict over the coming days.
“Mohed Altrad never intended to illegally obtain any favours from Bernard Laporte,” Altrad’s lawyer said in a statement published by Bloomberg.
“The Altrad group is neither concerned nor impacted by this ruling and Mohed Altrad will continue to invest his time and energy in management missions for his group, its employees and partners.”
Altrad sponsors both the French rugby union national team and the All Blacks, and also owns Montpellier rugby club. In 2015 Mohed Altrad became the first Frenchman to win the World Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Mohed was born into a Syrian tribe he moved to France as a 17-year-old with little money and studied hard to secure a PhD in Computer Sciences. He took the plunge with a partner in 1985 to buy a scaffolding manufacturer close to bankruptcy founding Altrad.
Over the years and following a string of acquisitions, the Altrad Group has become a huge player in construction, scaffolding and industrial services which has grown into a €4.5bn-turnover international group employing 62,000 people worldwide.
