Recordings relating to the awarding of a public contract in Le Puy-en-Velay, at the heart of an investigation by the national financial prosecutor's office, are also the subject of an investigation for "
invasion of privacy
“, we learned Thursday, June 22 from a judicial source.
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This investigation was opened by the Puy public prosecutor's office after a complaint from two municipal employees, whose conversations were recorded without their knowledge, as well as the mayor, Michel Chapuis (UDI), and the president of the urban community, Michel Joubert.
“
It must determine the conditions of the recordings, in order to know if they were carried out by a regular device, and to check if it is about remarks characteristic of an invasion of privacy
”, declared to AFP the public prosecutor in Puy-en-Velay, Nicolas Rigot-Muller.
Favouritism, corruption and influence peddling
Michel Chapuis, close to Laurent Wauquiez (LR), whom he succeeded as mayor of Puy-en-Velay in 2016 when he became president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, denounced in April “
methods of barbouze
”.
The city councilor was taken into police custody on Wednesday at the Puy gendarmerie to be heard on the merits of the case as part of the PNF's preliminary investigation, opened for favouritism, corruption and influence peddling.
He was released at the end of the day.
Other hearings, of territorial officials and local elected officials, have been taking place since Monday.
The case concerns suspicions of favoritism in the allocation of the management of the future hall of the covered market in the city center, a public market valued at eight million euros for ten years.
One of the two candidates, Alexis Haon, former local opponent of Laurent Wauquiez, filed a complaint, believing that he had been "
deliberately disadvantaged during the procedure
".
The news site Médiacités published excerpts from recordings of conversations, including that of an employee of the town hall who designated Alexis Haon as "
the guy (...) who should not be retained because Wauquiez does not want it
" .
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According to Le Canard enchaîné, 58 “
clandestine
” recordings made in an office in the community, from September to December 2021, were added to the PNF file.