International Investigation

Jim P., a French citizen employed as a butler, was given a suspended 18-month prison sentence by a French court on Friday for stealing from his former employer Sergei Pugachev, a former Russian oligarch turned critic of Vladimir Putin. In reality, Jim P. had been spying on his boss with the help of a London-based private intelligence-gathering company called Diligence who were themselves apparently working on behalf of a Russian state organisation. Gabrielle Leroyer reports on this intriguing saga.

Gabrielle Leroyer

26 February 2025 à 17h33

Jim P. is a particularly talkative person. But his trial, held on Friday February 21st in Nice in the south of France under a plea bargain procedure, failed to answer the many questions local detectives have been asking.