Posted 23 Feb. 2023 at 18:50Updated Feb 23. 2023 at 19:04
Targeted by a complaint from the Employers’ Association for Wage Guarantee (AGS), the administrators and legal representatives denounce “the torrents of mud in the press” against them, deny the suspicions of “delusional” embezzlement and threaten to attack in justice the boss of the Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, for “disparagement”.
The National Council of Judicial Administrators and Judicial Agents is a civil party in the AGS’s complaint. For what harm?
I remind you that the National Council is a public utility establishment whose purpose, in particular, is to ensure that professionals respect their obligations, to initiate disciplinary proceedings when necessary, to bring civil action if necessary. . The profession is regulated and works in the service of the general interest. We are the object of extremely violent attacks in the press, which have become recurrent, and the comments made are outrageous and misleading. The AGS announced in 2019 that it had filed a complaint for embezzlement, excuse me a little, of 1.5 billion euros. The annual turnover of all directors and agents is 400 million. So, 1 billion and a half it would be seen…
Unless it’s spread over ten years or more…
Even over several years it would be seen! Who can believe that 1.5 billion disappear like that? We don’t do what we want in the files. Our accounts are audited by auditors twice a year. Every three years, an on-site and documentary check is carried out. Our emoluments are established on scales. The profession is the most controlled in France, and that’s fine. Our end-of-assignment reports are submitted to the court, the prosecutor and the inspectors, including the AGS. We can’t hide anything. That’s good, we don’t want to hide anything! The amounts we are talking about are totally delusional, based a priori on nothing.
The complaint was filed after an audit by the firm Advolis and internal audits carried out by the DUA AGS which lists examples of files.
In 2019 when the complaint is filed, we are told that it is based on a report from the Court of Auditors. We consulted him at the time. There is nothing. Afterwards, we were told about an E&Y report which we think does not say anything either. We learn later that the E&Y auditor was hired by the DUA. The judge will make allowances and we will lend him our assistance. If the accusations made are false, we will take legal action and we will fight back. Because enough is enough!
Why did you wait four years to file a civil action?
Firstly because we had to wait for the opening of an investigation, in October 2022. When in 2019, the AGS told us that 1.5 billion had been embezzled, we went to see them and asked them for the elements to monitor professionals. If one of them embezzles money, it is our role to prosecute them. The AGS has consistently refused to share this information. For what ? If we claim to be the victim of gigantic misappropriations, it is because we want to put an end to them as soon as possible, right? Depending on what is in the file, we will act, without excluding filing a complaint for slanderous denunciation as we have already done. This torrent of mud that we have been reading in the press for a few days is unacceptable!
Do you plan to turn against the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, who declared “legal representatives, if I were a journalist I would be interested in it, that’s for sure”?
What is unfortunate is that as boss of bosses, he is not interested in it! Companies in difficulty do not interest the Medef. There are approximately 50,000 business leaders and between 200,000 and 300,000 employees who are affected each year. The Medef has an extremely brutal vision of this subject of society which consists in saying: the weak must disappear so that the strong grow stronger. We will seize justice for all acts of characterized denigration.
So the problem comes from the AGS, not from your profession?
I don’t yet know what is in the complaint, but I note that one of Advolis’ auditors was also hired by the DUA AGS. When you have independent audits carried out, it’s a bit surprising to then hire the author of the report. In addition, Unédic made extremely harsh remarks about the management of the national director of the DUA AGS, speaking of the “show of dysfunctions and fraud combined”. These are the ones attacking us! Everyone must come to their senses.
Were your relations with the AGS better with the former leadership of the DUA?
The AGS, weighed down by internal quarrels, has been dysfunctional in a very serious way for four years. In several cases, the employees are no longer paid or are several months late because the AGS refuses to honor its mission. Three examples: Naf Naf took seven months to pay the protected employees, XL Airways refuses to pay the industrial tribunals, La Halle, which has 1,900 employees, has been waiting for almost a year for the release of 8 million. Difficulties are daily. We finally realize that this has been going on for years, that the Medef has done nothing. So we look for a scapegoat, but the scapegoat is fed up and he will defend himself. Let the AGS do its dirty laundry, without getting involved in their stories!
Why is your profession so criticized?
I do not share this analysis, because it gives pride of place to systematically negative positions, such as the head of a company quoted in a major media who was condemned for the fact, I quote, “of management faults as serious as ‘obvious, which are entirely at the origin of the bankruptcy filing’ according to the judgment. What is the reality ? The French support system for companies in difficulty is the best in the world. The reality is that 80% of amicable procedures, ad hoc mandates and conciliations lead to a solution. Backup is two-thirds of the cases. In total, we are saving two-thirds of the jobs. In Germany it is 10%.
How many directors and agents are penalized each year?
This represents a few cases per year out of 450 administrators or legal representatives. The National Council prosecutes, and it is an independent commission, composed mainly of magistrates, which sanctions and often less heavily than what is recommended. Our hand does not shake.