Jean-Louis Missika, former deputy for town planning at Paris town hall (PS), was sentenced Tuesday by the criminal court to a fine of 90,000 euros and two years of ineligibility for a revolving door at the end of his mandate in two real estate groups between 2020 and 2021.
Mr. Missika, 73, appeared on Tuesday before the Paris judicial court as part of an appearance procedure with prior recognition of guilt (CRPC), a sort of French guilty plea. The sentence proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and accepted by it was approved by the president of the 32nd financial chamber.
Deputy for innovation (2008-2014) of Bertrand Delano, then urban planning (2014-2020) during Anne Hidalgo’s first mandate, Mr. Missika then joined a mission committee set up by the real estate group Novaxia as well as an orientation and prospective committee of the Gecina real estate group.
This situation was denounced by the Parisian LFI opponent Danielle Simonnet, which led to the referral by the PS mayor Anne Hidalgo to the ethics commission of elected representatives of the Council of Paris. She saw it as an ethical problem and a potential conflict of interest, leading to Mr. Missika’s departure from his duties and reports to the courts.
Suspicions of favoritism or matching cards
After initial denials during the investigation entrusted by the PNF to the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Delinquency (BRDE), Mr. Missika admitted on Tuesday at the bar to a bad interpretation of the law and to having made the very serious mistake of not consult the ethics committee before entering into these contracts with Novaxia and Gecina.
The financial prosecutor, for his part, affirmed that the former deputy was in an objective situation of conflict of interest. It was not a mistake, there was an absence of good faith. But the investigation also made it possible to rule out all suspicions of favoritism or ex post consideration of the decisions taken by Mr. Missika in his capacity as town planning deputy, while the two companies had been entrusted with missions by the Paris town hall at the time when Mr. Missika was still next to Ms. Hidalgo.
The financial prosecutor observed that Mr. Missika had repaid the disputed sums and announced that the presidents of Novaxia and Gecina were being prosecuted before the criminal court because they did not admit the facts.