He wanted to reinvent himself as an advisor to real estate groups. He was caught by the courts. Jean-Louis Missika, former town planning deputy to Anne Hidalgo, was sentenced this Tuesday by the criminal court to a fine of 90,000 euros and two years of ineligibility for a revolving door at the end of his mandate in two real estate groups, between 2020 and 2021.
This close friend of the mayor of Paris appeared before the capital's judicial court as part of an appearance procedure with prior recognition of guilt (CRPC), a sort of French-style guilty plea. The sentence proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) and accepted by the person concerned was approved by the president of the 32nd financial chamber, reports AFP.
Caught by the ethics commission
It was the alert given by the LFI deputy Danielle Simonnet, then that of Yves Charpenel - president of the ethics commission of the City of Paris - which had drawn the attention of the justice system to the attempted "reconversion" of Jean-Louis Missika, at the end of his mandate in 2020. The former deputy in charge of town planning had joined a mission committee formed by the Novaxia real estate group as well as an orientation and prospective committee of the Gecina real estate group.
He had been asked by the president of the ethics committee to resign from his new position. Yves Charpenel saw this as “conflicts of interest”. The “resale right” provided for by law in fact obliges all public officials, during the three years following the end of their public functions, to “indicate their professional projects to verify that they are not in contradiction with the ethical principles which govern public life,” he recalled. Jean-Louis Missika had been asked by the commission to also renounce a future presidency, as Yves Charpenel revealed to us at the time.
“There was an absence of good faith”
After initial denials during the investigation entrusted by the PNF to the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Delinquency (BRDE), Jean-Louis Missika conceded this Tuesday at the bar "a bad interpretation of the law and having been in the wrong very serious not to consult the ethics committee before entering into these contracts” with Novaxia and Gecina.
The financial prosecutor, for his part, affirmed that the former deputy was “in an objective situation of conflict of interest”. “It was not a mistake, there was an absence of good faith. »
But "the investigation also made it possible to rule out all suspicions of favoritism or a
posteriori
compensation for decisions taken by Jean-Louis Missika in his capacity as deputy for town planning", while the two companies had been seen entrusted missions by the Paris town hall at the time when Jean-Louis Missika was still alongside Anne Hidalgo. The latter could now work again for real estate groups but “it is not in his immediate plans”, his lawyer responds to Le Parisien. According to the latter, Anne Hidalgo's “spin doctor” rather participates in “one-off missions with
think tanks”.
The financial prosecutor observed that the ex-elect had indeed “repaid” the disputed sums and announced that the presidents of Novaxia and Gecina were “subject to prosecution before the criminal court” because they “did not recognize the facts ".
“I am proud that justice ruled in my favor following my referral to the PNF,” reacts LFI MP Danielle Simonnet. Combating revolving door and conflicts of interest is a central democratic issue. This fight requires putting an end to policies of privatization of urban planning, in Paris as elsewhere. »