Renault SA told one of three executives accused of selling company secrets to go quietly and “keep the money,” his lawyer said. The French carmaker denied making the offer.

Christian Husson, Renault’s legal director, said Matthieu Tenenbaum could resign and escape punishment during a meeting on Jan. 3, according to attorney Thibault de Montbrial. “He didn’t even understand what the proposal meant,” De Montbrial said by telephone yesterday.

Caroline de Gezelle, a Renault spokeswoman, said Husson had made no such suggestion. Tenenbaum “had the choice to resign but not to keep the money,” she said by phone.

Renault said on Jan. 5 it suspended three executives without pay after an ethics probe. Tenenbaum and the two other managers, upstream development chief Michel Balthazard and his deputy Bertrand Rochette, have denied selling electric-car secrets, contested their subsequent dismissals and filed criminal defamation claims, reported Bloomberg.

French Industry Minister Eric Besson said Jan. 13 that Renault had kept the government in the dark about the alleged leaks until they were reported by the French media. The carmaker filed espionage charges against persons unknown with Paris prosecutors the same day.

Renault’s internal probe found that offshore accounts in their names had received payments traced to Chinese companies, a French official said Jan. 12. China rejected the allegations as “baseless and irresponsible.”

‘Keep the Money’

Unlike most western automakers, Renault, based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, has no manufacturing capacity in China and has said it is seeking an opportunity to make its first Chinese factory investment with a local partner.

Renault said Tenenbaum could “keep the money” he was accused of receiving without telling him that he was suspected of spying, according to De Montbrial.

Lawyers for Balthazard and Rochette declined to comment on whether they had received similar offers during disciplinary interviews.

“Renault’s handling of this affair shows that it hadn’t planned for it to go public,” said Thibault du Manoir de Juaye, a Paris-based lawyer specialized in industrial espionage. “Companies don’t like cases like this to come out because they’re generally bad for their reputations.”

Renault confirmed the suspension of the three executives earlier this month before dismissing them. In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche published over the weekend, Chief Executive officer Carlos Ghosn said he decided in late December to take the disciplinary action and alert legal authorities “without delay.”

Renault added 2.5 cents, or 0.1 percent, to 49.45 euros as of 12:52 p.m. in Paris. The stock has gained 14 percent this year after climbing 20 percent in 2010.