Vendee Globe founder Philippe Jeantot faces three new charges of financial irregularities.

Jeantot, 53, was given a suspended two-year sentence and fined 15,000 Euros in November 2003 for tax evasion, upheld on appeal. The case now being heard alleges avoidance of corporation tax by his SailCom company, forgery and the abuse of the ‘social good’.

Forensic accountancy has allegedly found that in excess of 1 million Euros passed through an Irish account rather than SailCom’s bank in France.

Jeantot is a former deep sea diver who become one of France’s sailing
heroes by winning the first two editions of the BOC Challenge (the
forerunner to the Velux 5 Oceans Race) before setting up his rival solo
round-the-world event, which he lost control of in 2004.

* Jeantot is still the object of complaints from skippers registered for
the last Vendee Globe who paid registration fees to him. Those fees, they
claim, were not restored to them when the race organisation and ownership
were stripped from Jeantot by French courts.