WASHINGTON (JTA) — Convicted billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak was a former agent for French intelligence, according to a former French interior minister.
Charles Pasqua said Monday in the daily newspaper Le Figaro that Gaydamak, an Israeli-Russian-French businessman, was an operative for the French domestic intelligence agency DST.
As interior minister, Pasqua had headed French domestic intelligence and a governmental arms trade agency. He was convicted of taking bribes from Gaydamak and his business partner, Pierre Falcone.
Gaydamak was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 1 million euros — about $1.5 million — for selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms to Angola. He is well known for ownership of sports teams and media concerns, as well as his philanthropy and community service efforts with Israeli organizations.
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