Étienne Léandri (1915–1995) was an intermediary close toCharles Pasqua. He was part of the French Connection and Corsica Mafia organisation. He took part in the negotiations concerning many important international contracts, and represented, among others, the interests ofElf,Thomson-CSF andDumez.
Leandri commercialized "Gazogene", the burning of wood or charcoal to power automobiles, using a special apparatus. This method of powering autos had been developed at the turn of the 19th, 20th century but during the Second World War Leandri built a factory in Nice to retrofit automobiles formerly running on petrol and to produce new automobiles with the gazogene apparatus attached.[1]
During the war, he was a business associate of the American pharmaceutical and perfume manufacturer,E. Virgil Neal, of Tokalon;[2] and, according to some accounts, Léandri had become Director of Tokalon by 1944.[3]
Léandri was involved in variouspolitical scandals, such as theSofremi affairfr, for which Pasqua has been indicted, and the affair concerning the moving of the headquarters of theGEC-Alsthom Transport firms (for which Pasqua has also been indicted). In 1994 the second affair concerning Alstom generated a commission of 5.2 million Francs (790,000 Euros) paid by Pasqua to Étienne Léandri.[4]
