Jacques Barnaud was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 banker, businessman and member of the collaborationist Vichy regime during the Second World War.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

, Barnaud worked for the Banque Worms as an executive from 1928 to 1939.

He was enthusiastic about the Vicy regime and following the appointment of François Darlan

François Darlan

Jean Louis Xavier François Darlan was a French naval officer. His great-grandfather was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar...

 as Prime Minister of France

Prime Minister of France

The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...

 in February 1941 Barnaud was brought into the government as Delegate General for Franco-German Economic Relations. Along with the likes of Jean Bichelonne

Jean Bichelonne

Jean Bichelonne was a French businessman and member of the Vichy government that existed during World War II following the occupation of France by Nazi Germany....

, François Lehideux

François Lehideux

François Lehideux was a French industrialist and member of the Vichy government.-Car industry:...

 and Pierre Pucheu

Pierre Pucheu

Pierre Firmin Pucheu was a French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy government.-Early years:...

 he was a member of a group of technocrats who were important in the early days of the Vichy regime.

Barnaud worked with Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 during the occupation in order to secure deals to supply them with aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 and rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

 from French Indo-China. He did however successfully oppose a plan suggested by Hermann Göring

Hermann Göring

Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...

that the Nazis collect France's church bells and melt them down for their metal content, feeling that such a scheme would breed too much resentment against the Nazi occupiers.

Barnaud was arrested in October 1944 on charges of providing the enemy with intelligence although after several delays the charges were dismissed in 1949. He returned to his business interests and amassed a fortune in post-war France.