A Sarkozy is trying to determine the future of the Irish economy — but it’s not the French president.

Oliver Sarkozy, the half-brother of Nicolas, has emerged as a central player in Mallabraca, the consortium hoping to pump billions of euros into Irish banks.

As managing director of the Carlyle Group’s financial services division, Oliver is directly involved in a controversial plan to recapitalise Bank of Ireland and possibly other financial institutions.

Carlyle — with its fellow private equity house J C Flowers, a number of Middle Eastern funds and Cardinal Asset Management — is prepared to pump up to €8 billion into the banking system. In return, the group wants a controlling stake in whichever bank it supports.

The French president’s younger half-brother has been involved in some of the world’s biggest financial deals. While at UBS, the Swiss bank, he advised Sallie Mae, the American banking giant, on its recapitalisation.

He also worked on ABN Amro’s $21 billion (€16.5 billion) sale of LaSalle Bank to Bank of America, and the financial institution Mellon on its $17 billion merger with the Bank of New York.

David Rubenstein, the managing director of the Carlyle Group, described Sarkozy as having an “incredible track record” on his appointment in March.

Sarkozy is close to his half-brother and his sister-in-law Carla Bruni, the president’s wife. His father, Pal Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, a Hungarian immigrant to France, left his family when Nicolas was five and later married Christine de Ganay, Oliver’s mother.

He left France at the age of seven when his mother remarried Frank G Wisner, an American diplomat. He lives in New York with wife Charlotte and two children.

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