The Clearstream Affair

In Vincent Garenq's fact-based thriller, the career and happy home life of a French investigative journalist are nearly destroyed by his obsession to uncover the truth about international financial malfeasance that reaches into the upper echelons of government. Gilles Lellouche stars as Denis Robert, a reporter whose stories about political corruption lead him to a Luxembourg-based bank called Clearstream, which he learns has prospered from setting up secret accounts that allow customers to shield themselves from taxation and launder ill-gotten profits—sometimes using the proceeds in political campaigns. Simultaneously, a magistrate (Charles Berling) charged with looking into kickbacks in the French arms industry also discovers evidence of Clearstream's involvement. Eventually, the two men join forces, but their efforts are undercut by an iffy informant, and Robert finds himself the target of libel lawsuits brought by Clearstream. Garenq is obviously committed to an accurate telling of this story, which unfortunately brings in so many characters and narrative threads that it is difficult to keep them straight. Still, not least because it reveals a little-known facet of the global financial chicanery that caused the economic crisis of 2008, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)