Bernard Suggimi is a French intelligence official and security consultant. He was born on 12 December 1955 in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

, Morocco. He was the youngest

Inspector General of Police An Inspector General of Police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most se ...

. Bernard Squarcini was head of the French

Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur The General Directorate for Internal Security (french: link=no, Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, DGSI) is a French security agency. It is charged with counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, countering cybercrime and surveillan ...

(English: General Directorate for Internal Security) from 2 July 2008 to 30 May 2012. He was in charge of

counterterrorism intelligence Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

in Corsica, Basque Country and against

Islamic extremism Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging from academic unde ...

. In 2012 he created his company Kyrnos Conseil where he acts as an independent consultant.

Early life

Bernard Squarcini holds a

Master of law A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

and a diploma in

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

Career

In 1983, he was an aide to the regional director of General Intelligence in

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. In 1988, he was the General Intelligence departmental director for the

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlanti ...

region. In 1989, he became head of the investigations and research division of the

Direction centrale des renseignements généraux The ''Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux'' (Central Directorate of General Intelligence), often called ''Renseignements Généraux'' (RG), was the intelligence service of the French National Police, answerable to the ''Direction Gén ...

(DCRG; English: Central Directorate of General Intelligence). In 1993, he was appointed deputy director of Research at DCRG and the position of Deputy Central Director of General Intelligence in 1994 under the management of Yves Bertrand.

Yvan Colonna

Squarcini was instrumental in the 2003 arrest of

Yvan Colonna Yvan Colonna ( co, Ivanu Colonna, ; 7 April 1960 – 21 March 2022) was a French Corsican nationalist convicted for the assassination in 1998 of the prefect of Corse-du-Sud, Claude Érignac. He was beaten to death in prison by a jihadist inmate, ...

, the alleged murderer of prefect

Claude Érignac Claude Jean Pierre Érignac (; 15 December 1937 – 6 February 1998) was a French prefect on the island of Corsica. Érignac was born in Mende, Lozère. In the course of his political career, he had been prefect of several departments and ...

. In February 2004 he was appointed deputy prefect for security and defence in the

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...

region.

Intelligence and counterterrorism

On 27 June 2007, the Council of Ministers appointed Bernard Squarcini head of the

Direction de la surveillance du territoire The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST; en, Directorate of Territorial Surveillance) was a directorate of the French National Police operating as a domestic intelligence agency. It was responsible for counterespionage, counterterr ...

(DST; English: Directorate of Territorial Surveillance) in replacement of

Pierre de Bousquet de Florian Pierre de Bousquet de Florian was the head of the French National Centre for Counter Terrorism, an agency charged with monitoring and preventing terrorism in France, from the agency's establishment in 2017 to before being succeeded by Laurent Nuñ ...

. On 1 July 2008 the DST and the DCRG merged, becoming the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (DCRI; English: General Directorate for Internal Security). Bernard Squarcini assumed its leadership on 2 July 2008. On 30 May 2012 he was replaced by his former deputy, Patrick Calvar, and became prefect. He left the police force on 28 February 2013 and created his company Kyrnos Conseil. In June 2013 he becam
Senior Advisor to the Chairman at Arcanum Global
a global strategic intelligence company and a subsidiary of Magellan Investment Holdings, of which M. Ron Wahid is the Chairman. Established 23 March 2015, Magellan Investment Holdings is a holding company with investments in financial services, energy and natural resources, defense, technology and real estate. Magellan is the parent company of two subsidiaries: Arcanum, a global intelligence firm, and RJI Capital, a corporate finance and strategic advisory company. In 2015, Squarcini was President of Arcanum France, the company’s European branch. In November 2013, Squarcini published ''Renseignements français : nouveaux enjeux'' along with Etienne Pellot, in which he described his vision for a reform of the French intelligence services and a law to structure the intelligence activity, as well as measures to fight against Islamic extremism.

Controversy

During December 2021, French firm

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

paid €10m to settle claims in Paris to end several criminal investigations that a former French intelligence chief, Bernard Squarcini, spied for the company, on competitors and others including on an activist making a film about its billionaire owner,

Bernard Arnault Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (; born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector. He is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world's largest luxury ...

. Prosecutors allege that the intelligence chief used tactics like influence peddling, invasion of privacy leveraging his network in intelligence and police on behalf of the company.

Awards

* Knight of the Order of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

(France) * Commander of the

National Order of Merit (France) An order of merit is conferred by a state, government or royal family on an individual in recognition of military or civil merit. Order of merit may also refer to: * FIFA Order of Merit, for significant contribution to association football * PDC O ...

* Grand Cross of Civil Merit (Spain) * Silver Medal of Merit of the Guardia Civil (Spain) * Police Cross of Merit (Spain) * Grand Cross of Isabel the Catholic (Spain) * Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Merit (Italy)

Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Squarcini, Bernard 1955 births Living people Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite French people of Corsican descent French people of Italian descent French civil servants People from Rabat Aix-Marseille University alumni