The buyer of Whirlpool in Amiens, Nicolas Decayeux, was sentenced on Tuesday 1er February by the criminal court to a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 25,000 euros for misuse of corporate assets and bankruptcy. During the hearing, on December 9, the prosecution had requested an eighteen-month suspended prison sentence.
Mr. Decayeux’s lawyer, Pascal Lévy, reacted:
“I am waiting to see the reasons for the deliberation and to talk to my client to see if we are appealing the decision. The sentence is heavy (…), I will see in what state of mind my client is, knowing that he may want to turn a legal page and find some peace of mind. »
Mr. Decayeux, who declined to comment after the decision, took over in 2018, via his company WN, 162 of the 282 employees of the Whirlpool site, after the relocation of production to Poland. But WN went into liquidation a year and a half later.
“I consider myself a talent”
He explained during his trial that this project had fallen through because the public authorities and the company had not honored their financial commitments. “I had estimated the project at 21 million. I only received 9 million”he argued.
Among the grievances with which he is accused, the increase in his remuneration to more than 20,000 euros per month, as well as a bonus of 25,000 euros. Figures deemed problematic by the judicial administrator and the liquidator, given the turnover: 250,000 euros in 2018.
M. Decayeux replied:
“I consider myself a talent. I think I had that level. On the premium (…), maybe I shouldn’t have, even though I feel like I deserved it. »
The former strategic director of WN, who at the time became his companion, was convicted of concealment of misuse of corporate assets for having received a bonus. The confiscation of some 20,000 euros from his bank accounts has been pronounced.
Whirlpool became a presidential totem in 2017 after a surprise duel over the fate of the site in Amiens between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. At the end of November, Mr. Macron had estimated that WN had “behaved like a bounty hunter”. “I fell for you”he had declared to former employees.