Sacked after the revelations of the book “Les Fossoyeurs”, the former director general of Orpea Yves Le Masne is under investigation for “insider trading”, the national financial prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
Orpea, the world leader in the nursing home sector, has been suspected of acts of mistreatment of residents since the publication of the book “Les Fossoyeurs”, by investigative journalist Victor Castanet.
According to Le Canard enchaîné, the former CEO of Orpea pocketed nearly 590,000 euros last summer by selling shares shortly after learning of the preparation of an investigation into his group.
On February 4, he had strongly refuted “any accusation of insider trading” by assuring that the sale of “about a third of (his) shares” had “nothing to do with the book of Mr. Castanet, which did not create any particular concern for us”.
“Mid-summer is when I usually sell shares, as shown by my statements published earlier,” he told AFP.
CEO of Orpea for ten years, Yves Le Masne was replaced on January 30 by Philippe Charrier, promoted from non-executive chairman to CEO.