Camped at the helm of the 11th chamber of the Paris court, very talkative about the technical aspects of the meetings he produced for Nicolas Sarkozy's lightning presidential campaign between February and May 2012, Franck Attal is a little more difficult when it is a question of detailing its role in the system of fraud set up to break down the expenses - which exploded the legal ceilings - between the UMP and the communication agency Bygmalion.
In this politico-financial affair which would have allowed an outgoing president to steal 20 million euros from his campaign account (out of a total of 42.8 million euros), the former executive of Bygmalion, whom the one sees on images of the time giving the "go" to the candidate so that he goes on stage, is however part of those of the fourteen defendants who admit having knowledge of the system.
But participated how far?
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Bygmalion, UMP and false invoices: we summarize the other case which pursues Nicolas Sarkozy
"I served as a vehicle", as a "transmission belt" between the party and Bygmalion, "the accounting subjects were not my responsibility", he repeats, denying or minimizing having himself established false invoices. "In the process, I did not intervene in any way", he maintains, affirming that the "mechanics" of ventilation, once launched by the UMP, would have been managed at Bygmalion by the ex-accountant of the company - who is not on the defendants' bench.
"I do not deny having communicated once or twice elements, balances with our margins, but above all I continued to exercise my profession," he insists.
“Yes, I say that I am instrumentalized, he says.
I didn't realize it until after.
We go through me and not through Bastien Millot
(Editor's note: his boss, the only one from Bygmalion who denies having been informed of the fraud system, a close friend of the former UMP leader Jean-François Copé).
The watchword: "put the package"
Tables projected on the screen of the courtroom, figures given to the nearest euro, President Caroline Viguier tirelessly returns to the charge. From the questioning of Franck Attal, at the time Deputy Director General of the events subsidiary of Bygmalion - Event & Cie, first emerges this image of a "racing machine": meetings (there will be 44 in total) ordered "three days before", without a pre-established "format", or the watchword is just "put the package".
"It was the Presidential candidate, it had to go crazy," he said. “It's hot, we manage. Everything is decided over time, we don't have a roadmap. “No exchange to frame ?, the president is surprised. And you, what did you demand? “The UMP is a private client, it is the client of the presidency. We work with Bygmalion because Bygmalion is Bastien Millot, Copé's friend. That's why I have questions to ask Mr. Cope, ”he attacks.
The chair returned to the subject of fraud.
She wants dates, details: when was the ventilation system proposed?
Who spoke about it first?
Was it the expensive budget of the meeting in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis) on March 11 that sparked the idea?
Franck Attal evokes mid-March 2012, a meeting at the campaign HQ where he came to discuss the problem of the first eight unpaid meetings and worried suppliers.
There is there, he said, Jérôme Lavrilleux, the former deputy director of the campaign, and a UMP executive Fabienne Liadzé, the head of resources, (both accused at the trial).
"I remember a great moment of solitude"
"We have a problem, we are going to exceed the budget ceiling, so you will have to invoice us for part of the meetings on UMP conventions", Lavrilleux would have told him. The president interrupts him: "Are we telling you that like that?" That you have to make false invoices? "Yes," Attal replies. My arms fall to me. "We have no choice, you must continue to deliver meetings", his boss would have decided the next day.
It was only after the campaign, assures Franck Attal, that within Bygmalion “the subject” of fraud was raised again. Then at the end of 2012, after an article in Le Canard Enchaîné, that the idea of keeping a copy of the fraudulent double accounting on a USB key was decided - "in case the case comes out." "He emphasizes, bitter against his former boss:" We all agreed to tell the truth. At the beginning of 2014, with the publication of an article in Le Point, "which took the problem backwards", the noose tightened. That of Liberation, the following May, bears the shock.
At the helm, Franck Attal then recounts this surprising scene, in his eyes "a deception", which would have taken place after the publication of the article and a call from Fabienne Liadzé in a meeting room of the UMP. “Cope wanted to see me. I am surprised. He goes there. There are three of them in the room, they are waiting. The secretary general of the UMP arrives: “Franck, what is this story? What are these invoices, these agreements? "" And there, relates Attal, I remember a great moment of solitude. I look for support from Fabienne Liadzé's side, I see her gaze, I say:
Is it a joke?
And there, Cope:
You realize! How am I going to handle!
Then he goes out and closes the door… ”
