French prosecutors are seeking a five-year suspended prison sentence for billionaire Olivier Bouygues over the killing of protected birds on his hunting estate in central France. Investigators found decomposing animal carcasses, banned traps and records of bonuses paid for animals killed at the 650-hectare property. Bouygues denies responsibility.
Issued on: 09/09/2026 - 09:30Modified: 09/09/2026 - 10:01
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The case is being heard in Orléans, around 120 kilometres south-west of Paris, where public prosecutor Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren on Tuesday also requested the maximum €750,000 fine and a five-year ban on activities linked to hunting. Protected predators were killed to preserve game for regular hunting parties, Bochenek-Puren argued, describing an organised system that continued for years under “the same owner”. “Damage to biodiversity was major,” she said, condemning methods she described as “prohibited” and “barbaric”. Most French favour Sunday hunting ban amid safety concerns Carcasses and banned traps Investigators searched Bouygues's Fontenaille estate in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin after an anonymous tip-off. They found “animal carcasses in an advanced state of decomposition”, a member of the French Biodiversity Agency, a public body responsible for protecting wildlife, said. Photographs shown in court included dead kestrels, great egrets, harriers, common buzzards and great cormorants. Cats were also killed. Weapons, an excavator and around 100 jaw traps, banned since 1995, were also found, along with documents listing species to be eliminated and killings carried out over several years. Bonuses of around €100 were paid. Bouygues, 75, said he had “never seen” the carcass pit, although he acknowledged knowing it existed and preferred to call it an “ecological pit”. “I have other things to do than manage the property’s affairs on a daily basis,” Bouygues told the court.
