The Clearstream affair was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election.
A list of accounts supposedly held by French individuals at Clearstream was sent anonymously to investigating magistrate Renaud van Ruymbeke on four occasions between May and October 2004.
Among those pressing charges was prominent French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, who was preparing his (ultimately successful) campaign for the presidency.
De Villepin was indicted on charges of complicity to false denunciation on 18 November 2008, and tried at the Paris Correctional Court in September and October 2009.
[2] In 2014 Vincent Garenq directed a film about the event, The Clearstream Affair (French title: L'Enquête).