He is more accustomed to dictating his law in municipal councils than to finding himself under the fire of questions. Since Tuesday morning, Philippe Marini, the mayor (LR) of Compiègne, former chairman of the Senate finance committee, must nevertheless answer the many questions of the gendarmes. According to our information, confirmed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, the city councilor was placed in police custody this morning as part of an investigation that had been open for several months for suspicions of “favouritism”, “corruption” and “unlawful agreement”. . The local elected official is not the only one to be questioned by the gendarmes of the Paris research section. According to our information, five other people, including senior dignitaries from the Paprec company, are also heard in police custody.
A year ago, as part of the same investigation, the Parisian gendarmes had searched the premises of the town hall of Compiègne, the home of the mayor as well as a waste sorting center located in Villers-Saint-Paul. According to concordant sources, it is this ultramodern sorting center that is of interest to justice. In March 2017, after a call for tenders, the Joint Syndicate of the Oise department awarded Paprec the construction of this sorting center inaugurated in early 2019 after work estimated at 36 million euros.
A market won “fairly”
At the time, Paprec’s offer was described by the SMDO as the most interesting. Paprec would thus have committed to a floor price for the recovery of materials from the sorting process, which avoids variations in the cost of raw materials. The market had thus been won “fairly”, explained the mayor of Compiègne after the searches last May. “I do not believe that any contentious element could have been collected by the investigators. Searches are not pleasant, but are customary when there is an investigation, relativized the elected official. At my home, this is only the third time that this has happened to me…”, he also explained with a certain irony.
Despite this confidence displayed by Philippe Marini, questions remain about the fair nature of this public market. Justice thus wants to know if the city councilor and his relatives could not have benefited from counterparties to entrust the public market to Paprec. The PNF notably noted that Paprec is a major partner of Compiègne Équestre, an association chaired for more than 30 years by… Monique Marini, the mayor’s wife. A veritable institution in Compiègne, this association organizes a leading equestrian competition every year. An organization which is very expensive, and which survives in particular thanks to private partners… including Paprec, which systematically figures prominently on the advertising panels of the competitions organized in Compiègne.
In this case, Philippe Marini is not the only one to have been placed in police custody. The CEO of Paprec is also. When contacted, Paprec’s lawyer, Me Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, let it be known that his client, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, would not speak to the investigators. “It is his constitutional right. He asked to be indicted to have access to the documents in the file. He does not know the reasons for this police custody and it is the only solution for him to know what he is accused of. “In addition, the latter does not hide his wish to request a cancellation of police custody” because all the conditions are not met. Since the searches last year, the various actors in the case have been in contact, for example. »
In May 2021, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, president of the Paprec group, said in a statement that “never and nowhere has he practiced elected official corruption”. He had given his full support to Philippe Marini “against these supposed accusations, which are totally unfounded”. Contacted this Tuesday morning, Philippe Marini’s lawyer could not be reached.