An investigation will be opened, including for breach of trust, after a report on the management of the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG) by Didier Gailhaguet, said Tuesday the Paris prosecutor's office, requested by AFP.
This preliminary investigation, which will be entrusted to the financial brigade, follows a recent report by the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) which alerted, among other things, to an improper use of the federation's bank card and a lack of transparency of contracts under the governance of Mr. Gailhaguet, former omnipotent president of the FFSG.
When contacted, Mr. Gailhaguet's lawyer did not respond immediately.
Inappropriate expenses and questionable contracts
The inspection on the governance of the FFSG before 2020 was decided in the wake of the election in June 2022 of the current president of the FFSG, Gwenaëlle Noury, very strongly suspected of having been remote-controlled by Didier Gailhaguet.
The latter has officially not been at the helm of the federation for three years, after being pushed to resign for covering a coach accused of rape and sexual assault in another case.
Among the facts reported to the courts are a "use of the federation's bank card for inappropriate expenses and sometimes without justification" and a "lack of transparency in the management of certain contracts for the provision of important services and advice with companies historically linked to the FFSG, sometimes for very high costs, through opaque interpersonal relationships with the former management and administrative team."
But also "non-regulatory modalities of remuneration of high-level athletes and activities of undeclared sports agents" or "threats and attempts to intimidate current leaders".
These suspicions darken the horizon of the FFSG, which continues to sink into crisis since the winter of 2020 and the Abitbol case, the champion who said she was raped as a teenager by her former coach Gilles Beyer, now deceased.
As the IGESR report pointed out, "the effects of the 2020 crisis, having implicated more than twenty coaches for sexual and gender-based violence, are still very present", with "cleavages" and "rivalries between clubs, between coaches, between disciplines, between former athletes".