2023-12-22 22:23:12
Former Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud during the Medef summer forum on the HEC campus, in Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines), August 29, 2018. BENOIT TESSIER / REUTERS
This is an indictment which should cause some commotion at the Elysée. According to information from Mondeconfirmed by a judicial source, Emmanuel Macron’s former labor minister (from 2017 to 2020) Muriel Pénicaud, 68, was indicted, in October, for “complicity in favoritism” in the context of the judicial investigation opened in March 2017 by the Paris public prosecutor’s office in the so-called “Business France” case.
This investigation targets an evening organized at full speed in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2016, and intended to highlight high-tech and French start-ups. The so-called “French Tech” event took place on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a major event for technological innovation, at the pressing request of Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, Industry and of François Hollande and eager to showcase his presidential ambitions.
It was Business France, a public organization intended to promote the economic image of France internationally, placed under the supervision of Bercy and then headed by Ms. Pénicaud, which was in charge of this event at the luxurious hotel. The Linq in Las Vegas, whose total cost amounted to 381,000 euros, an invoice reduced to 289,000 euros after negotiations.
Malfunctions
However, this amount was higher than the ceiling (207,000 euros) from which Business France should have launched a call for tenders for the organization of this evening, in which Mr. Macron, with three days’ beard, and hundreds took part. French entrepreneurs (including Pierre Gattaz, then boss of Medef) and journalists.
But the organization of this event was entrusted, without competitive bidding, to the communications agency Havas, indicted for “concealment of favoritism” in this matter in 2019. The agency has always claimed to have been chosen in the framework of a framework contract, initialed in 2015 with Business France, and which would be supposed to grant Havas a form of exclusivity.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Las Vegas evening: what Muriel Pénicaud knew
It is a critical report from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) which noted dysfunctions in the organization of this evening, the absence of a call for tenders and the lack of knowledge of the rules by Business France. The said report, transmitted by Bercy, led the Paris prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into this Las Vegas evening.
Email exchanges
A member of Edouard Philippe’s government, Ms. Pénicaud was initially placed under the status of assisted witness in May 2018 after her hearing by the investigating magistrate then in charge of the case, Renaud Van Ruymbeke. President of the Sakura private sponsorship endowment fund and former permanent representative of France to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2020-2022), Ms. Pénicaud has always denied having knowledge of the financial details of this evening.
You have 40% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#Muriel #Pénicaud #indicted #complicity #favoritism