The Parisian judicial police are investigating the former general director of the Vilavi insurance group (ex-Assu 2000) Amir Messadi, targeted by a complaint for rape of a former employee, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday, requested by the ‘AFP.
Contact, Mr. Messadi’s lawyer, Me Frank Berton, did not wish to comment.
My client welcomes with relief the opening of this investigation and the referral to a judicial police service, declared for her part Me Anne-Claire Le Jeune, lawyer for the complainant.
On October 10, this former employee filed a complaint in Paris, claiming to have been the victim of sexual harassment upon her arrival at Assu 2000 in August 2021, then to have suffered four rapes.
On October 19, a spokesperson for Vilavi announced to AFP that he had terminated the mandates and functions held by Amir Messadi, who was replaced.
According to the complainant, who requires anonymity, Amir Messadi asked her for nude photos, of her breasts and her buttocks, Me Le Jeune told AFP at the time of filing the complaint. Then the complainant recounts four rapes, Marrakech and Tangier. It was clearly established that in the event of refusal, my client would lose her job, affirmed Me Le Jeune.
The former employee had already filed a complaint in Morocco, where the group has branches, but Amir Messadi fled the country, also affirmed the complainant’s Moroccan lawyer, Me Acha El Guella. Contacted in mid-October on this aspect, Mr. Berton made erroneous assertions.
This investigation adds to the Assu 2000 file, in Morocco and France.
In Tangier, the trial of eight other collaborators, postponed several times, is due to resume on November 7, notably for human trafficking and sexual harassment from 2018 to 2022.
In Paris, investigations were launched by a complaint in March 2022.
Jacques Bouthier, former CEO of Assu 2000 and one of the top 500 fortunes in France, has been indicted since May 2022 for human trafficking and rape of minors in particular. Initially a believer, he is now under judicial control for medical reasons.
The ex-CEO is also suspected of having wanted to set up a team to force the woman who accuses him of rape to leave France. Seven other people are indicted, including his wife and a former member of the GIGN (national gendarmerie intervention group).
In December 2022, before the investigating magistrates, Mr. Bouthier only admitted to consensual paid sexual relations with the complainant, whom he claims to have believed to have been of age, according to legal elements of which the AFP was aware.
The septuagnarian is also the subject of investigations in Paris for sexual harassment.