PARIS—French police on Friday arrested two employees from Renault SA's security department who were overseeing the auto maker's internal corporate espionage probe, people familiar with the matter said.
Dominique Gevrey, who was stopped before he was able to board an airplane at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport, and Marc Tixador are being questioned on their handling of €250,000, or $346,000, supplied for information during the botched probe, these people said. Police now are zeroing in on their actions in a case that led to the dismissal of three Renault managers earlier this year, these people added.
Jean Reinhart, a lawyer for Renault, said late Friday that the company had newly learned of the arrests and declined comment until Paris prosecutors had disclosed the outcome of the police interrogations. Messrs. Tixador and Gevrey couldn't be reached for comment.
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In Renault Spy Case, Déjà Vu
Friday's police action signals a key shift in French prosecutors' investigation into alleged spying at the French auto maker, which has led to a series of unflattering disclosures in recent weeks. Investigators have said that an employee in the security unit refused to disclose to police or Renault who ultimately received money for information that allegedly tied the three executive to foreign bank accounts.
Renault is now preparing to exonerate for lack of evidence the three managers whom they dismissed in January for allegedly selling corporate secrets, according to people familiar with the matter.
French prosecutors are shifting gears and trying to figure out whether someone mounted the entire affair as a way to defraud the auto maker, said the people familiar with the matter. Renault says its paid the money to Michel Luc, an Algeria-based private investigator, who Renault said was a middleman in providing details of the alleged bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Mr. Luc did not return calls to his former office near Algiers.
Mr. Gevrey has refused to explain who supplied him with information about the alleged bank accounts, according to Renault's Mr. Reinhart. In a 2009 case involving another Renault manager, Mr. Gevrey also provided Renault with information on alleged payment to a foreign bank account, he said.
Mr. Tixador, who currently oversees Mr. Gevrey, has told his bosses he doesn't know who provided the information to Mr. Gevrey in the latest case, Mr. Reinhart said.
The alleged bank accounts and money transfers were behind the accusation of corporate espionage that Renault leveled against three former managers involved in its electric-car program. All three have denied taking bribes or holding foreign bank accounts.
Mr. Reinhart has said that Renault is waiting until it hears back from Paris prosecutors regarding the outcome of their search for the alleged bank accounts before exonerating its former employees. Police in Switzerland and Liechtenstein haven't found any secret bank accounts connected to the three managers, people familiar with the matter said.
Renault's espionage affair traces back to an anonymous letter that was sent to several top Renault managers in August. In it, an anonymous tipster said he had heard Michel Balthazard, head of the firm's development projects and one of the company's most respected executives, negotiating a bribe.
By December, Renault's internal-security service had assembled elements pointing to the existence of bank accounts in Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
In January, the company dismissed Mr. Balthazard and two colleagues. The three men immediately professed their innocence, but Renault Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn went on national television to say the company had evidence against them.
Write to David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com
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