Jean-Marie Messier, the former chief executive of Vivendi Universal, has been banned by regulators from serving as a director or officer of a public company for 10 years, in the first use of powers under the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act which makes executives accountable for financial statements.

As part of the settlement against allegations of fraud agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Messier will have to drop his claims to a €21m ($26m) severance package, which he negotiated just before he resigned from Vivendi in July 2002.