Michel Maes, former vice-prosecutor of the financial section of the Paris prosecutor's office, now retired, was indicted on January 8 by two investigating judges from Lyon for “concealment of misuse of corporate assets” and “concealment of breach of professional secrecy, " Le Figaro learned on Wednesday, confirming information from L'Obs .
According to an investigation by L'Obs, the former number 2 of the Paris financial prosecutor's office, now 70 years old, is suspected of having informed, for remuneration, two construction contractors about legal proceedings concerning them. It was as a consultant that Michel Maes would have informed Antonio de Sousa, owner of France Pierre - one of the most active property developers in Ile-de-France - and Fernando Fernandez, construction contractor, on legal proceedings the designed. To give them this sensitive information, Michel Maes would have taken advantage of his former status, his address book in the judiciary and his old knowledge of the files. In exchange for this "advice", the two entrepreneurs would have paid him 150,000 euros, reports L'Obs . Antonio de Sousa was also put on trial on January 8, confirmed a judicial source in Le Figaro .
It is in 2016 that the investigators would have been put on the track of Michel Maes by digging the affair targeting Antonio de Sousa. At the time, the latter was indicted for abuse of social property, complicity in social property and trading in influence and then placed in pre-trial detention. De Sousa is indeed suspected of having corrupted several mayors of Ile-de-France to obtain public contracts. However, by peeling the telephone statement of Antonio de Sousa, the magistrates observe frequent contacts with Michel Maes. De Sousa then told the investigators to have signed with Michel Maes two consulting contracts at 5000 euros per month for "training for our employees ".
On June 14, 2016, the Paris prosecutor François Molins asked to disorient Lyon's investigation into Michel Maes, in order to avoid any conflict of interest. " The use of text messages sent and received by Mr. Maes shows that he was regularly asked to obtain information on the progress of legal proceedings concerning his interlocutors , notes the judicial police of Lyon, cited by L'Obs. At the end of the investigations, it seems conceivable that in return for this information, Mr. Maes may have received indirect remuneration within the framework of service contracts. "
Charges denied by Michel Maes and Antonio de Sousa through the voice of their lawyers.