Police in France carried out multiple raids yesterday as part of the ongoing corruption probe into French telecoms giant Altice.

As reported by Bloomberg, searches took place at 15 homes and 14 company sites located in Ile-de-France, Corsica, Var, and Vosges.

France’s financial prosecutor said that police recovered evidence and seized assets, including vehicles, luxury items, and more than €14 million ($16.2m) from bank accounts.

The raids are part of an investigation into Patrick Drahi’s Altice that was launched by French police in 2023, months after Altice co-founder Armando Pereira and other business associates in Portugal were detained following an investigation in Portugal.

Bloomberg reports that French authorities have been looking into a “vast corruption scheme” involving “private corruption, organized fraud and organized money laundering, to the detriment of Altice,” citing prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert.

Altice has previously denied any alleged wrongdoing, while Drahi has also distanced himself from the reports.

The prosecutor in France alleges that the corruption relied on shell companies acting as intermediaries between Altice and certain suppliers. Bloomberg reports that funds generated through inflated prices for goods and services were then allegedly used to support money-laundering operations involving entities based in France and abroad.

Pereira no longer holds any executive roles at the telco, which he founded with Patrick Drahi and Bruno Moineville in 2002.

Pereira wasn’t the only person arrested in Portugal, as local authorities revealed three people were detained following a number of raids on homes and offices across the country in July. He was released on a €10m ($11.58m) bail. Drahi and Moineville were not implicated in the investigation.

Drahi has previously said he feels “betrayed” by the probe into his fellow co-founder.

Altice asset sales

The probe into Altice comes as the carrier looks to break up its assets in France in an effort to reduce its debt.

Last month, Drahi rejected a €17 billion ($19.69bn) offer for its SFR mobile unit made by a consortium of French telcos, including Orange, Bouygues Telecom, and Free.

SFR has around 26 million mobile customers across France. But the telco’s parent company, Altice, is looking to ease its overall debt, which currently sits at €15.5bn ($18bn) after a debt restructuring earlier this year.

Altice has sold a number of key assets in the last couple of years, including its 24.5 percent stake in UK telecoms giant BT to Bharti Airtel, in a deal estimated to be worth about $4bn at the time. Drahi only increased Altice UK’s stake in BT to 24.5 percent in May 2023, and even had plans to increase it to nearly 30 percent.

The company is open to selling its telecoms business and recently spun off its French data center assets, forming a new company with more than 250 facilities in France, which were then sold to Morgan Stanley.

Altice has been in talks over a deal to sell its Portuguese mobile unit, and has separately looked to sell off its data center unit in the country.