The Parisian financial judge in charge of the investigation into the employment of assistants to Modem and UDF MEPs closed the investigations in this case on March 2, we learned on Monday. The survey focuses on the organization of the work of people hired with European funds as parliamentary assistants for MEPs, but who could have held a job, full or part time, at the UDF then at the MoDem.
At least fifteen people, including François Bayrou, former Keeper of the Seals Michel Mercier and former MEPs Sylvie Goulard, Nathalie Griesbeck and Jean-Luc Bennahmias, but also the MoDem and the UDF as legal persons, are already being prosecuted in the context of this judicial investigation.
1.4 million euros in estimated damage
The parties to the case now have a period of fifteen days to make known their observations or requests for additional acts, and the Paris public prosecutor’s office theoretically has three months to take its requisitions (i.e. before the legislative elections, scheduled for 12 and 19 June). The final decision on the holding of a trial rests with the investigating judge hearing the case.
According to a report issued in April 2021 by the police of the Anti-Corruption Office (Oclciff), the centrist party has set up an “old and more or less informal system” of embezzlement of European funds to pay its employees. “To keep his party alive and ensure its operation at a lower cost, François Bayrou and Marielle de Sarnez, supported by party executives, put at the service of the UDF, then of the MoDem, parliamentary assistants paid by the European Parliament” , summarize the investigators.
The survey mainly concerns the European legislature 2009-2014 but also, to a lesser extent, the previous and subsequent legislatures. The damage to the European Parliament is assessed at 1.4 million euros.
LFI and the RN targeted by comparable investigations
The Paris prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation in March 2017 after the denunciation of a former elected representative of the National Front, Sophie Montel, on the fictitious jobs of collaborators of 19 of her colleagues from all sides, including two from the MoDem: Robert Rochefort and Marielle de Sarnez – who died in January 2021 – right arm of party president François Bayrou.
Three months later, a former MoDem collaborator, Matthieu Lamarre, claimed to have been partly paid in 2011 as an assistant to former MEP Jean-Luc Bennahmias while working for the centrist party in Paris. These revelations had weakened the MoDem, President Emmanuel Macron’s main ally, and led to the resignation of François Bayrou, then Keeper of the Seals, Marielle de Sarnez (European Affairs) and Sylvie Goulard (Armies), a month after their entry into government in 2017 .
The MoDem has always assured that it has “respected all the rules”. La France insoumise (LFI) and the National Rally (RN) are also targeted by comparable surveys. The file of the far-right party is also being closed.