Topline
Billionaire construction heir Olivier Bouygues is awaiting judgment after going on trial in France this week for allegedly encouraging employees of his 2,500-acre hunting estate to kill protected animals after investigators found what they described as a “mass grave” of dead animals on the property.
French businessman Olivier Bouygues before the start of his trial on Spet. 7, 2026.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Bouygues, heir to the Bouygues construction and media empire, is one of six defendants accused of the systematic, illegal killing of protected animal species including buzzards, cormorants, herons, egrets, hedgehogs and wildcats.
The animals were allegedly killed because they threatened the estate’s population of pheasants, partridges and fish, which were intended for private hunting parties on the land near the Sologne Forest, about 100 miles south of Paris.
While the case does not allege Bouygues killed any of the protected animals himself, prosecutors say he expected his employees to do so and incentivized them by paying cash bonuses of about $115 for each threatening animal they killed.
Investigators with the French Biodiversity Office, who raided the property on an anonymous tip, said they found internal estate logs and hunting ledgers tracking the killings and more than 50 illegal jaw traps set around the property.
The case alleges the animals were buried in mass graves using on-site heavy machinery and, while a total headcount would be impossible to know, that hundreds to potentially thousands of animals were killed over several years.
The defendants are charged with several environmental crimes, including illegal hunting and poaching, and animal abuse.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The court’s decision. Two days of hearings finished on Tuesday and all that’s left is for a judge to rule. Prosecutors asked for a five-year suspended sentence and €750,000 fine ($872,000) for Bouygues.
WHAT ANIMALS ARE THEY ACCUSED OF KILLING?
The protected species allegedly killed on the property were the common buzzard, Eurasian kestrel, harriers, great egret, grey heron, great cormorant, European hedgehog and European wildcat. Domesticated cats were also found dead on the property and while they’re not a protected wild species, killing someone else’s domestic pet or mistreating animals constitutes a separate animal cruelty violation under French law.
WHAT ANIMALS ARE HUNTED ON THE PROPERTY?
Ring-necked pheasant, red-legged partridge and fish like carp and trout, which are farmed and stocked in the estate’s private ponds.
WHO IS OLIVIER BOUYGUES?
Bouygues and his younger brother, Martin, control over 28% of the industrial conglomerate Bouygues Group founded by their father. The company has five segments focused on construction, real estate, transportation infrastructure, media and telecommunications. Headquartered in Paris, the conglomerate boasts about $70 billion in sales and operates in more than 80 countries. When founder Francis Bouygues stepped down in 1989, he passed control to Martin and Olivier remained in a quieter, supporting role on the board of directors, on which he’s served since 1984. The family has long held connections to top French political figures, and former President Nicolas Sarkozy is a close personal friend of Martin Bouygues, who serves as the godfather to Sarkozy’s son.
FORBES VALUATION
Olivier Bouygues is worth an estimated $3.6 billion as of Wednesday.
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