Without an official title, except for seven months in 2018, Armando Pereira was nevertheless omnipotent at Altice (SFR, BFM-TV, etc.), the telecom and media group he formed with Patrick Drahi. Technical, supply, contract negotiation… everything, or almost, went through this insatiable cost hunter, whose assumed authority was akin, for his detractors, to brutality. Rare were the SFR executives who dared to contradict a decision by Mr. Pereira for fear of incurring his wrath or that of one of his relatives whom he had been able to place in certain key positions to consolidate his influence.
Since the arrest of his partner for eleven alleged financial crimes, on Thursday July 13, in Portugal, Mr. Drahi, who said to himself “betrayed”, seeks to deviate as much as possible from Mr. Pereira to prevent the scandal uncovered by the investigators contaminating, by ricochet, the whole group. In less than a month and a half, fifteen executives have been suspended, dismissed or resigned. Either because of their involvement in the case, or because of their family or personal ties with Mr. Pereira, as if the group feared that a form of “family business” had flourished within it.
On Monday August 21, the management of Altice France thus announced by email to employees the resignation of Cyrille Trollat, the general manager of SFR Distribution, the subsidiary which manages the shops of the telecom operator. According to the official message, Mr. Trollat leaves the company “for personal reasons and in order to devote himself to other projects”. But it is impossible not to see a family reason behind this departure. According to our information, Mr. Trollat is the cousin of Yossi Benchetrit, the son-in-law of Mr. Pereira. Portuguese justice suspects David Benchetrit, Yossi’s father, of having sent money through companies in the United Arab Emirates.
“Mr. Trollat’s position had become untenable”, recognizes a close source, on condition of anonymity. That of Gabriel Trollat, Cyrille’s brother, who also works at SFR as a purchasing manager for fixed terminals, is also weakened, even if he was still part of the workforce at the end of the week of August 21. “Misters Trollat make no comment”says Ornella Sarfati, Cyrille Trollat’s lawyer.
Phones listening
Married to Gaëlle, the only daughter of Mr. Pereira, Yossi Benchetrit occupied an important place in the organization chart of Altice. After having cut his teeth at Altice Portugal, the graduate of Centrale Lyon was appointed purchasing director of Altice USA in 2018, to apply the cost reduction recipes of his father-in-law. He had been suspended from his duties as soon as the announcement of the arrest of Mr. Pereira, in mid-July, before being dismissed.
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