Macron’s chief of staff faces corruption probe: prosecutors

PARIS: French anti-corruption prosecutors have opened an investigation into President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler over his links to Italian shipping giant MSC, a statement said on Monday. The probe will look into Kohler’s time as a senior civil servant in France’s economy ministry from 2012-2016, the latter two years of which he spent as a cabinet director to Macron who was minister at the time. The national financial crimes’ prosecutor office said it would check whether Kohler respected conflict of interest rules for civil servants as he “could have dealt with issues of interest” to MSC. Kohler’s mother is a cousin of Rafaela Aponte, whose husband Gianlugi founded the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in 1970 and built it up into a global leader in container shipping and cruise holidays. French investigative website Mediapart was the first to reveal Kohler’s family ties to the firm.