French diplomat and former head of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) Bernard Bajolet arrives on the opening day of his trial for complicity in attempted extortion at the court of Bobigny, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris on November 6, 2025. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
A former head of France's foreign intelligence agency was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence Thursday, January 8, for attempted extortion worth millions of euros. Bernard Bajolet, who led France's Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) from 2013 to 2017, was found to have orchestrated an attempt to coerce €15 million ($17.5 million) out of a businessman embroiled in a financial dispute with the service. His conviction brings to a close a 10-year-long investigation full of legal twists and turns, with the trial prompting scrutiny into the workings of the entire foreign intelligence service the 76-year-old once commanded.
On March 12, 2016, French-Swiss dual national Alain Dumenil, who was involved in financial disputes with the DGSE worth millions of euros, was stopped by border police at Paris's biggest airport as he prepared to embark on a flight to Switzerland. After the officers brought the businessman to the airport's police station on the pretext of needing to check his passport, two plainclothes DGSE agents told Dumenil that he had to repay the French state €15 million ($17.3 million).
