Ex-Vivendi Executives Messier, Bronfman to Stand Trial in June

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Seven former Vivendi SA executives, including ex-Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marie Messier and Warner Music Group Corp. Chief Executive Officer Edgar Bronfman Jr. will stand trial in June, a Paris court said today.

The trial will be held from June 2 to June 25, the court said. Messier faces charges of market manipulation, distributing false information and misuse of corporate funds, while Bronfman, who joined Vivendi as vice chairman when it acquired Seagram Co. in 2000, is accused of insider trading.

Today’s scheduling hearing comes as a New York jury continues deliberations in a $2 billion shareholder lawsuit against Messier, former Chief Financial Officer Guillaume Hannezo, and Vivendi on related claims that investors were duped into buying shares with overly rosy reports on the company’s financial health.

All men have denied the allegations. The investigating judge sent the men to trial, ignoring the recommendation by the Paris prosecutor to drop the case.

Messier, 53, served as chief from 1995 to 2002, amassing billions of euros of debt in his quest to transform the more than 150-year-old water utility once called Generale des Eaux into a rival to AOL Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc. The expansion resulted in a loss in 2001 of 13.6 billion euros ($19.2 billion) and of 23.3 billion euros in 2002.

Vivendi lost about 85 percent of its market value between October 2000 and mid-2002, when it had $38 billion of debt.

Bronfman sold Seagram in a stock deal that left the Bronfman family as the French company’s largest shareholder.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Smith in Paris at hsmith26@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net.