A search was underway Wednesday at the headquarters of the private group of Ehpad Orpea in the Hauts-de-Seine. An investigation was opened last April on suspicion of institutional abuse or financial offenses after the publication of the book-scandal on abuse in these establishments.
Searches were underway on Wednesday at the headquarters and in the regional directorates of the private Ehpad Orpea group, as part of the investigation opened in April on suspicion of institutional mistreatment and financial crimes, AFP learned from sources. consistent. A dozen gendarmes from the Versailles Research Section and the Central Office for Combating Damage to the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP) entered the company’s headquarters in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine). ) in the early morning, noted an AFP journalist.
The management of Orpea confirmed that a search was “in progress” at the headquarters and in its regional directorates. In the wake of this announcement, Orpea shares fell by more than 5% on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Verifications following the publication of Gravediggers
According to a source close to the investigation, these searches aim to “carry out checks” in the investigation opened after a report from the government sent in March to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, following the publication of the book The Gravediggers by Victor Castanet. This investigation was joined to other investigations, launched in February, for “forgery and use of forgery and violation of labor legislation by abusively resorting to fixed-term contracts”.
Requested by AFP, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office did not wish to communicate immediately. The work The Gravediggers accuses Orpea of serious shortcomings in the management of its accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad), which the group refutes.