The mayor of Roubaix, Guillaume Delbar, is there.
His first assistant too.
Here the cousin of one.
There the son of the other.
The mother.
All have been tried since Thursday in Lille for having taken advantage of a fraudulent system of tax exemption via political micro-parties.
"
It happens in the family,
" summarizes the president of the criminal court Jean-Marc Defossez from the start of the debates.
On the benches of the defendants, Guillaume Delbar, the various right-wing mayor of this city of 98,000 inhabitants, reelected in 2020, is alongside his first deputy, Max-André Pick, and another deputy, Karima Zouggagh.
His wife and mother are also on trial, as are, among others, two sons and the wife of Max-André Pick.
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They are being prosecuted for fraud by an organized gang.
Four, including Max-André Pick and Guillaume Delbar's wife Caroline, are also accused of breach of trust.
They are suspected of having set up a fraudulent system that passed tens of thousands of euros between 2015 and 2020 between micro-parties dedicated to financing electoral campaigns and fictitious associations.
The donors of these micro-parties could tax two-thirds of the sums they paid to them but also recovered, via checks from these “
empty shell
” associations
, 85% of the amounts initially paid.
"Perfect good faith"
This same system was put in place twice, with the parties “
Vivement Tomorrow
” and then “
Living otherwise locally
”, which kept only 15% of donations. The other defendants, including Guillaume Delbar, answer for concealment of breach of trust and would have benefited from this system. "
We were in perfect good faith
", assures the audience Max-André Pick, at the origin of the mechanism with Pascal Legrand, president of "
Vivement Tomorrow
" - who did not personally benefit from it. If he assumes "
the mistakes made
" and recognizes that the associations had no real activity, Max-André Pick says that he would never have taken the risk of reproducing the system if he had known it was illegal.
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While all the other donors recovered 85% of their donations, the elected representative donated 100%.
“
As president of the association (Les Amis et Citoyens engaged, ACE), did you have a little bonus?
Asks the president.
"
Exactly
".
“
I'm going to wonder if the people who govern us have their heads on their shoulders.
The children say
“to give is to give, to take back is to steal”
.
It doesn't take long studies to understand that a donation is a donation!
»Launches, with bonhomie, the president to the elected, who is also vice-president of the North department, in charge of finances.
"Money is not my engine"
One of Max-André Pick's sons, who nevertheless worked in financial auditing, pleads “
naivety
”. Guillaume Delbar's cousin, when she receives a refund check for her donation to support her cousin's career, believes in "
a balance of the purse
". In tears, the deputy mayor Karima Zouggagh claims her "
credulity
", saying she believed to benefit from a "
tax
loophole
, as there are so many others
", the legality of which was guaranteed by her "
mentor
" in politics, Max-André Pick. Like her, many defendants say they blindly trusted Max-André Pick. Karima Zouggagh had created the association 3F, a "
laboratory of ideas
According to its statutes, which was in fact only used for tax exemption.
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“
I do not understand what you are criticizing me for.
I just have people from my family who were my first political supporters
”, declared, hands behind the back, Guillaume Delbar, questioned after all the others.
“
Money is not my engine,
” he insists, pointing out that his wife Caroline was holding the purse strings for the countryside.
Asked about 11.0000 euros affected by ACE in 2015, the latter assures that she was not worried because she was used to receiving reimbursements of campaign costs by Vivement Tomorrow.
Max-André Pick would have said to him "
now, it is ACE which reimburses
".
