Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, just appointed interim head of the Ministry of Health, was singled out on Thursday by Mediapart for having received “without declaring them” gifts worth an estimated 20,000 euros from Urgo laboratories, as pharmacist. The minister, who rose in rank after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau for disagreement over the immigration law, “is targeted by a judicial investigation opened in June 2023 for having received gifts, without declaring them”, writes the online information site .
“The secrecy of the investigation prohibits me from communicating further”
Thursday evening, the public prosecutor of Le Havre Bruno Dieudonné confirmed to AFP that an investigation was opened “on the grounds of unauthorized perception by a health professional of advantages provided by a person producing or marketing products sanitary ‘, as an extension of the case which resulted in the conviction of Urgo laboratories in January 2023 by the Dijon criminal court”.
“The secrecy of the investigation prohibits me from communicating further, in particular on the identity of the pharmacists targeted by this investigation. Over a period which goes from the end of 2015 to the end of 2020, six of them received bonuses for an amount total greater than 12,000 euros,” added the magistrate. Asked by AFP, the minister’s entourage indicated that she “would only respond to the competent authorities”.
Pharmacist by profession, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who runs a pharmacy in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), “is suspected of having had luxury products delivered to her on 21 occasions, from 2015 to 2020 – watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne, boxes for weekends… – for a total amount estimated at 20,000 euros, from Urgo laboratories”, according to Mediapart. “Urgo thus sought to retain pharmacists and increase their commercial margins,” continues Mediapart.
In January 2023, Urgo laboratories were fined 1,125,000 euros, including 625,000 suspended, for offering gifts to pharmacists, in return for giving up commercial discounts. According to Mediapart, “a second part of the affair” has begun, with justice looking into all the pharmacists who received gifts. In Normandy, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) is dealing with around forty files. “The lightest cases (less than 1,000 euros of gratuity) are classified. While the other files give rise to the opening of a preliminary investigation, in June 2023,” explains the newspaper, according to which Agnès Firmin Le Bodo appears “among the biggest alleged beneficiaries”.