Abuse of corporate assets: sentence reduced on appeal for ex-businessman Pierre Botton

The ex-businessman Pierre Botton was sentenced Monday, November 9 on appeal to three years' imprisonment, against five at first instance, found guilty of having flouted his association to help prisoners and embezzled money of its companies, said a judicial source.

Read also: The RN in court for abuse of corporate assets

The Paris Court of Appeal partially reversed the court's judgment rendered in June, in particular by not pronouncing a fine, but it confirmed the continued detention of Mr. Botton, 65, as well as the final ban on manage a company.

This decision "

" but it is "

", welcomed his lawyer Hervé Temime.

At the end of his first trial in the spring, this ex-Lyon businessman was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros for breach of trust, abuse of corporate assets, forgery and laundering of tax fraud.

He had appealed.

In the 1990s, Pierre Botton was involved in a very high profile affair when he was campaign manager and son-in-law of Michel Noir, former RPR minister and mayor of Lyon.

In 1996, he was sentenced on appeal for misuse of company property to three and a half years' imprisonment.

A few years later, claiming to be transformed by this prison experience, he founded an association aimed at improving conditions of detention and promoting the reintegration of delinquents.

With this structure, he became an interlocutor of several Keepers of the Seals.

Large companies funded his association and sports and entertainment personalities supported his campaigns.

"Caught up by his old demons"

But following an investigation opened in 2017, he was again sent to court for embezzling money within his company, which itself is funded by funds from the association.

He was also suspected of having embezzled the money of a Swiss investor via two other companies.

In total, hundreds of thousands of euros were used for personal purposes: rent and work in a villa in Cannes, in his Parisian accommodation, travel, alimony, catering and luxury hotels ... On the last day of the trial on appeal, on October 6, the Advocate General had requested four years' imprisonment and a 100,000 euro fine for someone who "

".

The magistrate had noted "

" of Botton's investment in an association which fights in particular against recidivism, only to be accused again of facts similar to those which had earned him his first stay in prison.