Guérini case: the former Marseille baron of the PS and his brother facing the judges

Former strongman of the Socialist Party and the Bouches-du-Rhône department, Senator Jean-Noël Guérini compared Monday in Marseille alongside his brother Alexandre, an entrepreneur whom the courts reproach in particular for having organized the rigging of public markets.

To read also: The PJ hits the mafia of "thieves in the law"

"It is a generalized deviation of public affairs in the service of private economic interests"

, summarizes in his order the last investigating judge of the case for which nine other defendants - elected, territorial officials, managers of companies - and Alexandre Guérini's company SMA Environnement will also be tried until April 9 before the criminal court.

To read also: Nicolas Sarkozy condemned: François Hollande "does not accept repeated attacks against justice"

Alexandre Guérini, 64, an entrepreneur specializing in waste management, will have to answer in particular for "

complicity in favoritism

 " and "

concealment of illegal taking of interests

 ".

He faces 10 years in prison, a 750,000 euros fine, ban from exercising a commercial or industrial profession or from managing a business.

Read also: Senator Jean-Noël Guérini (ex-PS) referred to court for "illegal taking of interests"

Prosecuted for "

illegal taking of interest

 ", Jean-Noël Guérini, 70, risks five years in prison, a fine of 500,000 euros and a possible penalty of ineligibility.

In his defense, the entrepreneur maintained that his brother "

was not informed

 " of the "

interventions

 " which he carried out "

in a completely disinterested manner

 ".

The elected official said for his part to have "

never put (his) power at the service of his brother

 ".

Contacted by AFP, their lawyers did not wish to speak immediately.

A sprawling investigation

The case began in February 2009 on the basis of an anonymous denunciation evoking a system of embezzlement of public money for enrichment purposes involving the two brothers.

The investigation examines the interventionism of Alexandre Guérini in particular in the affairs of the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, which his brother Jean-Noël chairs between 1998 and 2015, the prosecution evoking “

a clientelist system

 ”.

The indictment of the boss of the department in 2011 caused an earthquake within the powerful socialist federation of Bouches-du-Rhône that Jean-Noël Guérini controlled with an iron fist.

The tenors of the party demand its exclusion.

Cornered, he left in 2014 the party where he had been active since 1967 and created a new movement, the Force du 13.

To read also: "Today, it is impossible to defeat the mafias such as the 'Ndrangheta"

On the judicial level, the investigation quickly becomes sprawling.

More than 150 people are interviewed, including 31 in police custody, 26 indictments are pronounced and three people imprisoned, including Alexandre Guérini for five and a half months.

Thirteen million euros are seized in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

To read also: Before Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president and ministers condemned by justice

The investigations cover around thirty aspects: public procurement conditions, allocation of subsidies, jobs or housing, operation of private companies responsible for processing municipal waste.

The Guérini brothers are indicted for "

criminal association

 ".

Eleven years later, Judge Fabrice Naudé closed the investigation in January 2020, pronouncing 14 dismissals and retaining only 10 cases.

"Mafia procedures"

The criminalization of the Guérini criminal association is abandoned, even if the magistrate notes that “

behaviors or methods presenting the characteristics of mafia procedures […] have been occasionally highlighted

 ”.

Almost all of the cases that will be studied in court from Monday target Alexandre Guérini and his alleged action to circumvent public procurement rules, using his brother's name to put pressure on elected officials or officials.

To read also: Patrick Balkany indicted for "illegal taking of interests" and "abuse of corporate assets"

Jean-Noël Guérini will have to explain the preemption and then the cession by the General Council of land located in La Ciotat (east of Marseille), "

while he knew that this cession would benefit his brother

 ", according to the 'order.

“

This affair is 10 years of battles, of suffering for me, my wife and my daughter.

I have been shouted at, defamed.

I was called a thug, a mafia.

All this for that !

 “, Reacted to AFP Jean-Noël Guérini in January, after the end of the investigation where he benefited from three dismissals.

"

This is an opportunity to turn the page of a time when local corruption was quite widely tolerated, difficult to detect and impossible to condemn

 ", for his part declared to AFP Patrick Lefas, president of Transparency international France , one of the 10 civil parties constituted at the trial.

In addition to this file, the two brothers are still being indicted in another case, that of the ABT company, where two men often appear as figures of the

 Marseille

“

milieu

”, Bernard Barresi and Michel Campanella.