person · FR
Pierre-Édouard Stérin
Report a factCorrect or respond
French billionaire entrepreneur, co-founder of the gift box company Smartbox and of the investment fund Otium Capital, backer of the "Périclès" political project.
Documented facts (7)
- 4 Jun 2026Anti-immigration
Heard by videoconference by the French Senate inquiry committee on the private funding of public policy, said he supports the "remigration" of foreigners who are offenders, undocumented or unemployed for more than twelve months, describing himself as "to the right of the far right" on immigration. He also defended Périclès as a "metapolitical" project; the committee's rapporteur, Colombe Brossel, said the hearing had not answered questions on the transparency of his funding.
“Je suis en faveur de la remigration des étrangers délinquants, sans papiers ou au chômage depuis plus de douze mois”
- 31 Jul 2025Attacks on press & justice
By a deed dated 31 July 2025, transferred 98.3% of the shares of his holding company B.A.D. 21 to a new entity named "Lemahieu Holding", after Thomas Lemahieu, the L'Humanité journalist who revealed the Périclès plan. L'Humanité's director, Fabien Gay, called it "an unacceptable provocation, even an attempt at intimidation".
Response: His investment fund Otium Capital declined to comment.
- 11 Jun 2025Racism
Speaking by videoconference at a conference titled "Agir en chrétien pour le bien commun" organised by the traditionalist Catholic Institut du Bon Pasteur, answered a question on his priorities for France by saying "to have more babies of European stock", and said he wanted these children to be baptised. The conference took place on 11 June 2025; the video was posted on YouTube on 23 July 2025 and reported by Mediapart, France 3 and Reporterre.
“Avoir plus de bébés de souche européenne”
- 20 May 2025Anti-democracy
Failed for a second time to appear before a French National Assembly inquiry committee on the organisation of elections, which wanted to question him about the roughly €20 million a year he plans to spend through Périclès. The committee chair, Thomas Cazenave, said nothing justified Stérin placing himself "au-dessus des lois de la République"; refusing to appear before such a committee is punishable by up to two years in prison and a €7,500 fine.
Response: Stérin officially cited concerns for his safety; shortly before the hearing he criticised the deputies on CNews. He was questioned by the judicial police in November 2025 over the refusals, and appeared by videoconference before a Senate inquiry committee on 4 June 2026.
L'Humanité revealed the "Périclès" plan backed by Stérin: about €150 million over ten years, naming "socialism, wokism, Islamism, immigration" as enemies, aiming to help the Rassemblement National win 300 towns in 2026 and to build a reserve of 1,000 people for government posts ahead of 2027, and claiming a "relationship of trust" with Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen.
Response: Stérin's teams confirmed the plan to Le Journal du Dimanche, describing the document as "un peu daté".
Through his Périclès project, which he said would invest €20 million a year, supported at least 24 think tanks, associations, media outlets and training institutes in 2024, according to La Lettre as reported by Politis. Politis grouped several beneficiaries as "islamophobes ou sécuritaires" and listed LÉA, an association created to fight "racisme anti-blanc". On 28 May 2026, Périclès director Arnaud Rérolle told a Senate inquiry committee that Périclès had given three to four million euros to associations in each of 2025 and 2026, citing the Observatoire de l'immigration et de la démocratie among the beneficiaries.
Response: Arnaud Rérolle told senators that Périclès defends right-wing ideas "peu représentées dans ce débat public" by legal means and has never received public funding.
Was one of the private lenders, according to Le Monde and BFMTV, behind about €1.8 million in personal loans that financed Rassemblement National campaigns in the 2020 municipal elections in Marseille, Nice and Lyon and the 2021 regional elections in PACA, Normandy, Occitanie and Centre-Val de Loire; beneficiaries included Stéphane Ravier, Philippe Vardon and Thierry Mariani. A preliminary investigation by the Marseille prosecutor, stemming from facts that emerged in a procedure opened in Alençon on 18 January 2021 and later extended to money laundering and the illegal exercise of the banking profession, examines how the loans were granted; Stérin was questioned as a suspect on 11 June 2024 and has not been charged.
Response: Stérin confirmed he was questioned, said the loans were "effectués à titre personnel" and declared, and that he "n'a jamais participé, directement ou indirectement, à un quelconque financement illégal de campagne".