Legion of Honour: Police investigate corruption claims for France’s top award

One of France’s top generals, former Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur) Benoît Puga was taken into police custody last week as part of a police investigation into whether he received bribes in exchange for putting nominees forward for prestigious national honours.

Puga was head of the body that awards the Legion of Honour from 2016 to 2023. The five-star general also served as chief of staff to the president at the Élysée Palace under former French leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.

He was taken into police custody in the morning on September 22 and released the next evening, French media outlet Le Parisien reported on Thursday.

The Legion of Honour is France's highest civil and military order of merit and one of the most famous national honours in the world, offering recognition for outstanding service and contributions to France.

Created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, recipients include leaders of France’s 1789 Revolution and the World War II Resistance. 

More recent inductions include Gisèle Pélicot, Volodymyr Zelensky and France's victorious 2018 men's World Cup football team, along with prominent military officers, civil servants, artists and scientists. 

Read more'I wanted my story to help others': Gisèle Pelicot memoir launches in 22 languages

Dinners, holidays, business opportunities

A source said that General Puga was questioned by French anticorruption body l’Office central de lutte contre la corruption et les infractions financières et fiscales as part of an ongoing 2023 investigation into corruption, influence peddling and illegal conflict of interest.

At the heart of the investigation is former Republican senator Jean-Pierre Bansard, who died in 2024 – one year after a Mediapart investigation revealed suspicions that he had used his vast fortune to secure honours for members of his entourage. 

While senator, three of Bansard’s children and at least nine more of his associates were awarded either the Legion of Honour or France’s second-highest decoration, the National Order of Merit (Ordre national du Mérite). 

The investigation claimed that Bansard had a “friendly” relationship with Puga who, as grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour, chaired the council that vetted candidates for the national honours submitted by government ministers.

Final approval for the honours list rests with the president.

Mediapart claimed that Bansard invited Puga to expensive dinners and on holiday in one of his properties in Corsica as well as providing business opportunities for Puga’s son.

The ongoing police investigation “aims to clarify whether, and under what conditions, Benoît Puga – while he was Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour – intervened to enable several people in Jean-Pierre Bansard’s family or professional circle to receive decorations between 2016 and 2023", a judicial source told AFP.

Cash for honours

Puga has denied any wrongdoing, as did Bansard. Both men’s homes have been searched as part of the investigation along with Bansard’s business and political offices.

Police last week questioned Puga’s wife along with others linked to the investigation including a restaurant owner and a former member of the Grand Chancellery, Le Parisien reported.

Also questioned was businessman Julien Renault who founded the Foundation for the Legion of Honour in 2019. 

The organisation aimed to enable business leaders to fund renovation works at the Grand Chancellery, which is housed in a 19th century mansion in central Paris. But Mediapart questioned whether this could also have been used as a channel to influence the committee’s selection process.

Renault was in July named by Russian businessman Aleksandr Voinovskii as one of a number of powerful figures in France who in 2021 proposed that he could make cash transfers from €50,000 to €150,000 in order to receive a decoration or a French residence permit.

Renault told Mediapart that he had been in contact with Voinovskii but denied proposing payment for a national honour. “No-one ever promised decorations, ever!” he said.

More than 380,000 people have been awarded the Legion of Honour since its inception according to French database, Léonore. Around 79,000 people currently hold the decoration.

Both the Legion of Honour and the Order of Merit have five rankings: Knight, officer, commander, grand officer and grand cross.

The decision to revoke either decoration can only be made by the French President following the rules surrounding honours.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have all seen their honours revoked, as has former French President Nicolas Sarkozy who was convicted of corruption in 2025.

Read moreFrench ex-president Sarkozy stripped of Legion of Honour