The resigning president of the SCO of Angers Saïd Chabane will be tried for money laundering in an organized gang on June 7th. He will also be tried by the Bobigny criminal court for illegal exercise of the profession of sports agent, which “for a club president, is a bit unprecedented”, reacted, surprised, Me Bernard Benaiem, with AFP .
“This is a case in which there is no solid charge against my client”, added Me Benaiem while Saïd Chabane, 58, emerged free, without judicial review, from his police custody which began on Tuesday morning. The prosecution had told AFP that it had requested his placement under judicial supervision. The former president is the subject of a summons by official report (CPPV), procedure which makes it possible to judge a person who has committed an offense within a maximum period of six months after his police custody, without going through a judicial information.
His son as a substitute
Resigning from his post as president since March 21, he gave way to his son Romain Chabane. A first search, in June 2022, took place at the Angevin club and that of Saint-Etienne, as part of the investigation carried out in Bobigny. Of the three players’ agents then placed in police custody, only one had the license allowing him to practice this profession.
These three people were also returned to court according to Mr. Benaiem. Then in January, the SCO of Angers had once again been raided. The club then ensured that they had nothing to be ashamed of. According to the club, this is a “large-scale” preliminary investigation launched following embezzlement revealed by wiretapping carried out as part of the investigation into extortion denounced by Paul Pogba.
Indicted in 2020
Separate from the Pogba affair, it concerns around fifty people and affects several clubs, assured the SCO. The club has been in deep crisis for more than three years. In February 2020, Saïd Chabane was indicted for aggravated sexual assault.
Six young women who were his employees during the denounced facts, including four at the SCO, had filed a complaint against him. And sportingly, the club, the bottom of Ligue 1, is having a disastrous season, the result of a disastrous summer transfer window after the departure of almost all the executives, who were all at the end of their contract.