PARIS, Sept 5: Invented back in 1974 by a French citizen, the smart card — the chip-bearing plastic card that has made its way around the world and which is at the center of international financial transactions and of security control devices — could very well fall into the hands of the CIA.

At least that is what some French authorities are fearing following the naming of US citizen Alex Mandl to be the new CEO of Gemplus, the world-leader in the production of smart cards that also owns the French patents under which the smart card is manufactured. Most smart card patents are protected under French patent law and were deposited originally by the card’s French inventor, Roland Moreno.

French authorities in the defence, financial and internal security sectors now fear that with the naming of Mr Mandl — an American citizen of Austrian origin — the patents could very well be transferred to the United States, indeed fall under the control of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The fears first surfaced when a US company, TPG, a Texan investment fund, became the principal shareholder of Gemplus with a 26 percent stake. Indeed, one of the first decisions taken following the arrival of TPG was to legally domicile Gemplus, until then a French-nationality company, in neighbouring Luxembourg.

In order to alleviate French concern, TPG decided in June to support the naming of a French citizen, Dominique Vignon, as the company’s new chairman of the board. Mr Vignon was previously chairman of another security-sensitive company, Framatome.

As chief executive officer of CEO, Mr Mandl will run Gemplus on a day-to-day basis, which means — fear French authorities quoted in national dailies Le Figaro and Le Monde — that he could very well proceed with the transfer of the highly-sensitive patents — indeed the company’s accumulated knowhow in the smart card sector — to the United States, where they could be more easily controlled by In-Q-Tel, and therefore the CIA.