Vivendi ex-chief is bailed

JEAN-MARIE Messier, the former chairman of media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, was today charged with issuing false information, share price rigging and abuse of company assets.

Messier, ousted from the company two years ago, was questioned by Paris police for 42 hours. His lawyer, Olivier Metzner, said he had been released on bail, and added that the sum deposited was 'less than the prosecutor was seeking'.

The charges are said to relate to events in 2001 and 2002 when Messier ran the group, which had grown its annual revenues to e45m (£30bn) through an international acquisitions spree.

He is alleged to have been party to the issue of false information about the state of the company's finances, in particular the accounting treatment of telephony subsidiaries and associates Cegetel, Maroc Télécom and Elektrim.

He is also charged with share-price manipulation in relation to a e1.7bn share buyback in autumn 2001 and less than 15 days before the company published first-half results.

The final charge relates to the $25m (£560m) golden parachute that he was forced to forgo at the end of last year amid a welter lawsuits.

Messier is the fifth person charged in the two-year investigation by French financial police. The others are former Vivendi employees finance director Guillaume Hannezo, treasurer Hubert Dupont L'Hotelain and deputy treasurer François Blondet, and Deutsche Bank executive Philippe Guiz.