Parisian offices in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and the Régions de France association were raided on Monday as part of an investigation into “suspicions of phantom jobs” of relatives of regional president LR Laurent Wauquiez, a a judicial source indicated on Tuesday. Confirming information from the Radio France investigation unit, this source specified that searches were “in particular” carried out in these two places “in order to collect information relating to the work performance of these four agents.”
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region confirmed to AFP that it had “naturally welcomed the investigators as they should so that they can carry out all the useful acts which will make it possible to establish the activity of the agents of the region unfairly implicated .” “It welcomes the diligence of justice which will quickly bring to light the reality of the facts. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is obviously at the entire disposal of justice,” added the institution.
An investigation opened in 2020
An investigation, opened in the fall of 2020 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) after a report from the Regional Court of Auditors on Laurent Wauquiez’s collaborators in the region, had already led to a search in September 2022 at the region’s headquarters. In October, Radio France’s investigation unit pointed out four jobs paid by the regional council and based in Paris, whose missions for the regional executive would be the subject of internal questioning.
Three of these people would have been based in the Parisian premises of the region, while the fourth would have been at the headquarters of the Régions de France association. When disclosing the information in October, Mr. Wauquiez spoke of “false, erroneous and dishonest information”. “I regret that the journalists were exploited,” added the potential candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
The regional opposition had for its part criticized the use, considered irregular, of the region’s resources by Mr. Wauquiez, and reported the facts to the Lyon public prosecutor’s office which transmitted the report to the PNF, according to the judicial source. The PNF investigation “since September 2020 has been extended to the four situations described in this publication,” this source further clarified.