Targeted by a judicial investigation into their financial management, the Cosem health centers, employing 1350 employees, have been placed in receivership, with an observation period of 6 months, announced Wednesday the management in a statement. The centers "remain open, appointments are made, care is carried out and salaries are paid throughout this period," said the management. The management says that the "sustainability" of the centers is "not in question", but that the procedure "will allow the association to regain its stability and calm the social climate".
An investigation into the financial management of Cosem was entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Crime (BRDE), after two reports to the courts. The first came from the Caisse primaire d'assurance maladie de Paris, itself alerted to a "suspicion of fraud". The second came from the elected representatives of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) of Cosem who denounced facts that could be qualified as breach of trust, illegal taking of interest, fraud to the Social Security and moral harassment.
Fictitious jobs
The non-profit health association Coordination des oeuvres sociales et médicales (Cosem) is financed by public funds: reimbursements from Social Security and subsidies. It is run by a father, who has been managing director since 2010, and his two sons. The elected representatives of the CSE denounce exorbitant salaries paid to the father and his sons, fictitious jobs of their wives and disproportionate expense reports, amounting to more than 285,000 euros for three people in 2021. Cosem, created in 1945, claims two million medical and dental consultations per year provided by 700 practitioners in about fifteen centers in Île-de-France and Rouen, Amiens, Caen, Lyon, Marseille, Orleans and Saint-Étienne, according to its website.
