The satirical weekly is accused by one of its journalists of having paid the wife of a cartoonist for twenty years.
In terms of fictitious jobs, the Canard enchaîné has real expertise. The satirical newspaper notably built its reputation by revealing the Penelope Fillon affairs in 2017 or the RPR scandal at the town hall of Paris. This time, it is the turn of the weekly to find itself in the dock. One of its journalists, Christophe Nobili, suspects his employer of having hired the companion of one of the designers for around 20 years, without work in return, revealed France Inter. A complaint against X was filed on May 10 for abuse of corporate assets and concealment of abuse of corporate assets, has been confirmed Le Figaro.
“We have a preliminary investigation in progress, entrusted to the Financial Brigade and opened on the heads of abuse of social property and concealment of abuse of social property“, also confirmed the prosecution to AFP. Several sources indicated that hearings had been carried out recently by the investigators.
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It was by chance that Christophe Nobili discovered last year that a woman had a press card domiciled at Le Canard enchaîné. Something to intrigue the journalist: the editorial staff being small, all its members know each other. He discovers that the said person is none other than the wife of one of the historical designers, André Escaro, 94 years old. The latter would have benefited for two decades from a remuneration from the newspaper. Problem, there does not seem to be any traces of its activity within the palmiped. The world mentions 3 million euros in salary which would have been unduly paid.
Initially, Christophe Nobili tries to obtain clarifications from his management and in particular from Nicolas Brimo, the deputy general manager and director of publication. The answers provided not having convinced the journalist, the latter finally decides to file a complaint against X.
A “moral dilemma»
“My client is completely turned around“, underlines from the outset master Pierre-Olivier Lambert, lawyer of Christophe Nobili. He points out that the journalist faced “a moral dilemma“, between keeping quiet to protect his employer and revealing”information that the Duck would have released if it touched another structure“, adds the lawyer. However, he would like to point out that his client is not targeting anyone in particular: “it is a complaint against X. It is up to the investigators to determine who set up this system, who knew, who benefited from it.Christophe Nobili asks for nothing and has nothing to gain in such a case, insists the lawyer. “The complaint makes no request. On the contrary, he has everything to lose“.
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For his part, Nicolas Brimo, director of the publication of chained ducktold AFP:We were neither heard nor summoned, we are not aware of what exactly is in the complaint; we don’t even know (his) exact date“. “There was a meeting between lawyers four months ago and we have never heard of it since. We gave explanations, I thought I understood that these explanations did not satisfy, that’s why he filed a complaint“, he said again. “If there are explanations to be given, we will of course give them to the police and to our readers.“, said Nicolas Brimo again.