Talon, Patrice Guillaume Athanase, 1958–, Beninois businessman and political leader, president of Benin (2016–), b. Abomey. A successful businessman, he made his fortune in the cotton industry. He subsidized the successful presidential campaigns (2006, 2011), of Thomas Boni Yayi, but later fell out with the president. Accused in 2012 of embezzeling millions of euros, he fled to France; later that year he also was accused of complicity in an attempt on the president's life, but in 2014 he was pardoned after Senegalese mediation. In 2016, running as an independent, he was elected president after a runoff against Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou.
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