Several heirs of the Mulliez family, owners of Auchan, Leroy-Merlin and Decathlon, were indicted in 2019 in an investigation into suspicions of tax fraud, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from a judicial source on Wednesday 1er may, confirming information from Release.
This file was opened in 2012 after the complaint of a former member of the family, Hervé Dubly, feeling wronged. The judicial investigation, led by a Parisian financial judge, led to searches and the indictment in 2019 of Jérôme and Thierry Mulliez for “breach of trust” and “laundering of tax fraud”. They are respectively the great-nephew and the second-cousin of Gérard Mulliez, 92 years old and founder of Auchan. Three financial structures linked to the family were also indicted in January 2023 for aggravated money laundering and aggravated tax fraud. A member of the Mulliez family was placed under the intermediate status of assisted witness in 2019.
A sort of shareholders’ agreement governs the “galaxy” of Mulliez companies with a complex and opaque structure: it mixes civil companies owned by the family and holding companies managing the brands.
At the origin of these investigations, Hervé Dubly denounces in a first complaint in Lille “very high loans without writing and without interest granted” by group structures “to foreign companies (several hundred million) and to individuals via personal or family civil companies (several million)”.
According to the complainant, these opaque loans without apparent justification constitute a breach of trust, particularly in that they do not respect equality between the partners. The investigation is looking into this montage which “could also allow a reduction in tax in France (allowing for example to benefit from dividends abroad) and would therefore be likely to qualify as aggravated tax fraud or laundering as aggravated tax fraud”specifies the judicial source.
The Mulliez Family Association says it is “totally serene”
In 2023, the investigating judges closed their investigations for the first time. But since then, the Directorate of National and International Audits (DVNI), responsible in particular for investigating large companies and their subsidiaries, has transmitted to the investigating magistrate the documents from the tax audit still in progress, according to the judicial source.
The provision of these documents in the procedure could postpone the outcome of the procedure and modify the conclusions. While according to a source close to the matter, the investigation is going well “on the organization of Mulliez companies and holdings” in general “rather than individual deviations”the Mulliez Family Association (AFM), which brings together the heirs of the family, told AFP “totally serene” regarding a procedure “devoid of any basis”.
“We explained the perfect regularity of the operations examined. Their sole objective is the diversification of investments abroad.assured the association. “Financial flows are completely transparent and are part of a logic of economic development. No tax benefit was sought, no tax benefit was realized. None “insisted the AFM again.
The association also displays its intention to “immediately file a complaint for violation of the confidentiality of the investigation, to confuse those who, after ten years of an uncompromising but particularly calm investigation, suddenly attempt to exploit this procedure and [de] put pressure on justice ».
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