As French operators try to charm Altice into selling them SFR, investigations into corporate corruption at the group level abound. The first large European M&A deal of 2026 may also be the most controversial. This week, police are raiding properties in France on the hunt for evidence of an alleged scheme to defraud Patrick Drahi’s telecoms group Altice of hundreds of millions of euros. This of course follows the infamous corruption investigation of Altice in Portugal. Altice has not shaken that monkey off its back, evidently. Altice’s co-founder Armando Pereira is suspected of overbilling Altice on contracts to run up fake bills. Drahi has denied any knowledge of this scheme. The story sounds like a crime thriller, but the details…