2023-07-28 13:03:39
The Paris prosecutor’s office announces this Friday that the presidential campaign of Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, is the subject of a second investigation.
A preliminary investigation, relating to suspicions of abuse of social good around commissions for the rental of a seat for the presidential campaign of Valérie Pécresse, was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office, said this Friday, confirming information from Mediapart.
“Following the report of the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Funding (CNCCFP) relating to Ms. Pécresse’s campaign accounts, a preliminary investigation into the heads of breach of trust and concealment of breach of trust was entrusted to the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ)”, confirmed the public prosecutor. “Investigations are ongoing,” he said.
According to the news site, the investigation relates to the “rental conditions of one of Ms. Pécresse’s two campaign seats and the services of the consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)”, which “invoiced at the end 2021 62,400 euros in fees for the search and negotiation of premises. In its decision of December 14, 2022 relating to Valérie Pécresse’s campaign account, published in the Official Journal at the end of January 2023, the CNCCFP questioned the reality and the “limited” scope of JLL’s services.
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The questions are heightened by the fact that these premises belonged to a lessor, Comet Group, which had already contracted with the consulting firm Lysios Public Affairs, one of whose partners, Patrick Stefanini, was campaign director for Valérie Pécresse. This second investigation was opened on an unknown date after a report from the Campaign Accounts Commission (CNCCFP).
Last September, the Paris prosecutor’s office had already opened a preliminary investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” targeting the presidential campaign of candidate LR, after a report this time from Julien Bayou (EELV). This report had been described as “slanderous denunciation” by the entourage of the LR president of the Île-de-France region.
The report of the resigning national secretary of EELV, sent to the public prosecutor’s office on April 19 and of which AFP was aware, also targeted the offenses of illegal financing of electoral campaigns, illegal financing of political parties, misuse of corporate assets and/or taking illegal interest.
LR candidate Valérie Pécresse spent 14.3 million euros for a single round of voting, but without reaching the 5% vote mark which would have allowed her to obtain reimbursement of her campaign expenses. After her defeat, she had launched a call for donations to fill a hole of five million euros.
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