The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

François and Penelope Fillon at the accounting hour

2020-02-23T19:06:05.321Z


The 2017 presidential favorite and his wife, as well as Marc Joulaud, deputy deputy of the former Prime Minister, appear between at


The January 25, 2017 article in the "Canard enchaîné" was a cluster bomb, the last shaking of which is to come. Three years have passed since the revelations of the satirical weekly on the presumed fictitious jobs of Penelope Fillon with her husband and it is as if the earth had shaken.

Torpedoed in the middle of the campaign, the champion of the right, crowned with his victory in the primary and favorite of the race at the Elysée, has, since his defeat on the evening of the first round, drawn a final line on political life and left his camp in a field of ruins. Dizzying.

The hour of accounts has now struck for the former Prime Minister whose trial, that of his wife and his deputy Marc Joulaud opens this Monday in Paris. Her children, who are also accused of allegedly abusive employment, escaped removal to court. Prosecuted in particular for "embezzlement of public funds" and complicity, the defendants face a sentence of ten years in prison and a 150,000 euro fine. The investigators made the accounts and the amount of disputed wages paid to Penelope Fillon by her two employers between 1998 and 2007 then between 2012 and 2013 amounted to more than 1 million euros. The National Assembly, civil party, intends to claim its due.

But for François Fillon, converted to finance, it is first and foremost the honor of his family that is at stake, as he hammered out last January on France 2. Still claiming his innocence, the former mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe will have a lot to do to convince, as the investigation seems overwhelming. "A fully charged procedure," he denounces. The kick-off of this legal contest may be slightly postponed. Because the news of this trial strikes another: the massive strike movement by lawyers against the pension reform. In solidarity with their peers, the counsel for the three defendants will request the postponement of the hearing. If the court accepts, the proceedings will really begin on Wednesday.

Penelope Fillon's Impossible Quest for Work

The investigators sought to prove that Penelope Fillon was the parliamentary assistant to her husband. Documents or testimonies… their quest was in vain./AFP/Jean François Monier

However, they searched. By multiplying searches and hearings. By using archives and documents. But nothing worked. Never did the examining magistrates find sufficient elements, in their eyes, to characterize the reality of the employment of Pénélope Fillon near her husband, then of his substitute. At the end of their investigations, they estimate that the wife of the former presidential candidate is a lot of things: a “housewife […] very invested in the education of her children and in the management of her family life ".

Or “the spouse of a politician with an ascending trajectory […] recognized in the local microcosm” and as such likely “to accompany him during official ceremonies and festive or cultural events, to support him during his campaigns, to recommend to him the situation of such or such a citizen or to render him small services ”. It is very honorable. But the magistrates are categorical: "All of this was not the job of a parliamentary assistant, much less full-time".

Newsletter - The essentials of the news

Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more

Almost no one knew of the existence of this contract

The investigators quickly identified a first anomaly: the alleged work of Penelope Fillon left almost no trace. François Fillon explained this: his wife's missions as he defined them - writing brief memos, proofreading speeches, knowledge of people and the field and processing of mail - were purely oral and intellectual.

The lawyers for the Fillon spouses nevertheless delivered numerous documents supposed to testify to his activity. "Intended to make mass [...] these documents did not demonstrate anything, or confirmed the abuse of language consisting in describing as work of parliamentary collaborator the most harmless of its activities", scan the examining magistrates.

The only documents annotated by Penelope Fillon found in the search are those relating to her mandate as elected representative of Solesmes (Sarthe). "This showed that, within the framework of her activity as a municipal councilor, Penelope Fillon invested herself, annotated documents and constituted archives, which made even more surprising the absence of any documentary trace of her activity as parliamentary assistant" , the judges cruelly conclude.

In the absence of written records, the magistrates sought testimonies likely to justify the comfortable salary paid each month by the National Assembly to the wife of deputy Fillon. Except Sylvie Fourmont, the oldest and most faithful collaborator of François Fillon who evoked the central role of the Welshwoman - "the ear of her husband", she praises - nobody or almost knew the existence of this contract . Neither the majority of the other collaborators, nor the local journalists, nor the prefects, nor the former police officer of the RG de la Sarthe…

"Unlikely" that she could have played such a function

In this quest for evidence, the examining magistrates were also not convinced by the explanations of the principal interested party. So, while Penelope Fillon is supposed to have had the mission of receiving people administered at home, she was unable to cite any visitor's name. For the judges, it is "unlikely" that she could have played such a function. As for the argument of "discretion" put forward by François Fillon to justify the lack of traces left by his work? "Hardly convincing," they say.

Penelope Fillon's lawyer, Me Cornut-Gentille, intends to request the release of his client. According to him, the judges relied on an incorrect definition of the profession of parliamentary assistant and the absence of written documents would not constitute an indication of fictitious employment. "Penelope Fillon was not content to be the wife of François Fillon", he explains in his conclusions. It will now have to be demonstrated at the hearing.

Marc Joulaud, the shy and unkind substitute

“Did Penelope Fillon have a role of parliamentary assistant in the classic sense of the term? Of course not, ”Marc Joulaud told RTL. AFP / Jean-François Monier

By replacing François Fillon after entering government in 2002, Marc Joulaud has not only taken up his post as deputy to the Assembly. He also hired his parliamentary assistant, his wife Penelope, paid for five years 5,200 euros net per month. Has he only had a say? François Fillon's secretary gave him a fully completed contract which he only had to sign. Without discussing the salary. “I did not know that his remuneration was increasing. I simply endorsed the proposal that was made to me ”, recognized the one who also succeeded his mentor at the town hall of Sablé-sur-Sarthe.

Asked about the content of Penelope Fillon's work, Marc Joulaud had a much easier time describing what it was… not. “The latter did not assist him in his legislative work, nor in his activity within the defense committee […]. She did not deal with written and oral questions to the government, did no research on specific themes, did not intervene in her relations with the political party […] Having no material […], she did not never returned to the Assembly and did not have a badge ”, say the examining magistrates, specifying that Marc Joulaud did not exercise any hierarchical authority over Penelope Fillon. The only trace of collaboration between them seems to be her rare visits to her office during which she "leafed through the filing cabinet where the invitations received at the town hall were filed in order to envisage those where her husband or herself could go".

A job in return for the place of supply teacher

Asked about this hiring which he is accused of being the instigator, François Fillon justified it by the timidity of his deputy and by the need for his wife to accompany him to maintain the link with his constituency. "Supposing that Marc Joulaud was really handicapped by an unhealthy shyness, it is hard to see how Penelope Fillon, who described herself as particularly reserved, could have been of any help to him," the judges quipped. “Under these conditions, they conclude, it clearly appears that the employment of Penelope Fillon was nothing other than the consideration in lieu of supply offered by François Fillon to his former collaborator and a bias for François and Penelope Fillon to increase their income by receiving a salary without corresponding work provision. "

Marc Joulaud, who spoke very little publicly on this affair, confided last week at the microphone of RTL: "Did Penelope Fillon have a role of parliamentary assistant in the classic sense of the term? Of course not. Did Penelope Fillon have a role with her husband or with me […], the answer is inevitably yes ”, he pleaded.

The employment of the friend Ladreit de Lacharrière

The owner of Revue des Deux Mondes was sentenced to eight months for misuse of corporate assets./LP/Philippe Lavieille

In early 2012, François Fillon contacted his old friend Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. After they left Matignon, he feared that his wife would be bored, even though he had just hired him full time as a parliamentary assistant to the Assembly! The former Prime Minister asked the wealthy boss of the Fimalac group to find an activity for Penelope. In May, she was hired for 3,950 euros net per month as a “literary advisor” to the Revue des Deux Mondes, owned by the businessman.

Penelope Fillon will be an employee of the publication for 19 months during which she writes four book notices, two of which will be published. But above all, the investigators found no trace of her activity as a literary advisor, when she was supposed to think about the future of the review: neither written document nor testimony.

The businessman ends up confessing

After defending the opposite, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière ended up admitting the fictitiousness of this job. “It is true that from May to December 2012, there was not sufficient compensation for his salary […] And from January 2013 until her resignation in December 2013, Madame Fillon did not provide any work in return for his salary, "he admitted in a letter asking to benefit from the guilty plea procedure.

In December 2018, the businessman was sentenced to an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 375,000-euro fine for this abuse of social goods which he had estimated at 135,000 euros. This recognition seriously complicates the defense of the Fillon spouses, sent back to this section for complicity and concealment of abuse of social assets. Penelope Fillon maintains that her work was not fictitious.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-02-23

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-27T17:15:41.919Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.