Swiss freeze suspect bank accounts

GENEVA, Switzerland -- Millions of dollars suspected to come from French bribes have been frozen in Swiss bank accounts, officials say.

Swiss judicial officials say they have frozen 800 million Swiss francs ($445 million) suspected to stem from bribes that a French company allegedly paid to sell warships to Taiwan.

Most of the money was in Swiss accounts, but accounts were also blocked in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and other countries, Geneva's chief prosecutor Bernard Bertossa told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

French investigators are examining claims that money was channelled from former state-owned energy Group Elf Aquitaine to help another French firm, Thomson-CSF, win a contract to supply Taiwan with six Lafayette frigates in 1991, Reuters said.

Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas was convicted of corruption last month for taking illegal gifts from Elf.

Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps on Saturday reported that 400 million Swiss francs ($222 million) had been frozen in connection with the inquiry led by Geneva investigating magistrate Paul Perraudin.

But Bertossa said the true amount was about double that.

"For the time being, 800 million Swiss francs have been frozen, mainly in Switzerland.

"This is an affair that concerns other countries more than Switzerland, where the funds have been blocked... Above all it was a French company which appears to have paid all of these commissions," he added, but gave no more details.

In May, Credit Suisse Group said more than 250 million francs in deposits were thought to be linked to the warship case.

On Friday, a Liechtenstein court froze nearly $33 million in accounts linked to the same case and on Saturday, Julius Baer said it had also identified up to 400 million Swiss francs ($222 million) in suspect money.