They were co-presidents of Bygmalion,
“close friends”
, united like the fingers of a hand. Today, Guy Alvès and Bastien Millot are co-accused in the trial of the fraudulent financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign in 2012 and it is an understatement to say that they are no longer on the same wavelength. Their common point: they both respond to complicity in forgery and use, complicity in fraud and complicity in illegal financing of an electoral campaign. Both face 5 years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros.
Mr. Alvès was questioned at length, Thursday and Friday, by President Caroline Viguier who is not the type to slip on the details. He explained that in mid-March 2012, the campaign team of the outgoing president had announced to Franck Attal, director of the event subsidiary Event & Cie, that the meetings were too expensive and that the accounting would now have to be adjusted, because the legal ceiling (22 million) was going to be pulverized. In short: the invoices would be sent to the UMP, and
"broken down"
through various false invoices, in particular for bogus agreements, in order to unload the official account of the candidate.
Not without panache, Mr. Alvès assumes his share of responsibility:
“Franck is informing me of the situation. I go to see Bastien in his office. He already knows and tells me that we have no choice. My acceptance is unambiguous, I was aware that I was doing something illegal. Bastien did not influence me. If we refuse, we are not paid the 4 or 5 million already committed, my company is dead, I put down 40 employees and subcontractors. And against whom do we turn to be paid? The campaign fundraising association will disappear no matter what on May 6, after the second round. So yes, I could have asked the president
[Editor's note: Nicolas Sarkozy, whose name he never mentions]
to pay me the bill.
How to tell you ... I'm not sure he would have called me to ask me what order to write the check to.
And then, if I say no, his campaign stops dead, I'm not sure I can take this responsibility from the top of my 39 years at the time.
So I say yes.
I know it is illegal, but I tell myself that at least the money of UMP activists will not be misled ”
.
We understand that the defendant is not proud of himself, of this scheming which is becoming
"taboo"
and of which no one speaks within Bygmalion.
Franck Attal and Sébastien Borivent, other managers of the company and its subsidiary, generally made statements to the same effect in court.
Now is the time for Bastien Millot to take the stand. Thursday, his lawyer had appeared unnecessarily vindictive towards Mr. Alvès. But he remains calm. In memory of the good old days, it evokes the positions of
"Franck"
,
"Sébastien"
and
"Guy"
. But, while everything indicates that he was aware of the embezzlement, he persists in situating himself
“out of scope”
, according to the president's expression. For the first time since the beginning of the affair, this notorious close friend of Jean-François Cope explains why, according to him, he could not intervene
"neither from near nor from far"
, in the campaign of Mr. Sarkozy: in 2005, he claims, the latter had unfairly suspected him of being part of a group which would have disclosed information on the private life of his wife, who had just broken up. Then, while he joined the France Televisions group, he is
"still in the camp of the enemies of Nicolas Sarkozy"
, when the latter is opposed, from the Elysee Palace, to certain strategic choices of the president of the audiovisual group, Patrick de Carolis.
When Mr. Attal announces, in February 2012, that the campaign team of the candidate of the UMP solicits Event & Cie
"for four meetings"
, Mr. Millot, to believe his own words, reacts thus
"in conscience"
:
"I would like to point out straight away that in no way do I want to deal with it"
. Very good. But the president exhumes an email dated April 24, 2012, which she projects on a big screen. This message is sent by Mr. Millot to MM. Attal and Borivent, Guy Alvès is in copy. The co-president of Bygmalion demands that the quotes and invoices relating to the campaign which he does not want to know anything about be collected, in order to
"ensure the utmost rigor of our accounting procedures"
.
The president asks him to react to the assertions of Mr. Alvès on the fraudulent system of "breakdown" of invoices:
"I am categorical, we never mentioned it"
.
Then, for lack of anything better, he launches into cryptic considerations:
“My feeling is that from the start Bygmalion has been a convenient tree to hide a much darker forest.
We have been taken hostage.
In the presidential fight, there are sometimes ulterior motives.
Who and how did you choose to place the responsibility on Bygmalion given the specific nature of our links with Jean-François Copé?
"
.
When he was at the helm, Sébastien Borivent had not opted for the forest metaphor. Regarding the
fraudulent
“ventilation”
imposed on Event & Cie, he said:
“There was something exciting about this campaign, but we didn't have time to savor it. The request
[from the Sarkozy team]
somewhat spoiled the party ”
.