A “fraudulent system”, denounces Anticor. The anti-corruption association asked for the expansion of the investigations in the AGS affair, suspecting embezzlement of public assets of around fifteen billion euros at least to the detriment of this scheme which guarantees wage claims in failing companies, has said Anticor’s lawyer, Jérôme Karsenti, on Wednesday.
According to the association, certain legal representatives were able to take advantage of a “lack of control” of the AGS to embezzle funds, she explains in her civil party application sent to the Paris court on Tuesday and consulted by the AFP.
15 billion euros in damage
Judicial information is already underway in Paris, after complaints against X filed in 2019 by the Association for the management of the employee debt guarantee scheme (AGS, employers’ organization), the Unédic AGS delegation (DUA), the Medef and the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) for corruption, breach of trust and illegal taking of interests. Anticor wants the investigating judge to also be seized for embezzlement of public property: it estimates the damage suffered by the AGS at more than 15 billion euros between 2009 and 2022.
Created in 1974, the AGS acts as a shock absorber. In the event of a company’s difficulties (recovery, liquidation, etc.), this scheme, funded by compulsory employer contributions, grants advances to settle the sums due to employees, through legal representatives. Then the AGS is reimbursed – generally partially – if the recovery plan or the sale of the assets in the event of liquidation allows it.
A diversion in several stages
Anticor suspects embezzlement during the various stages of the process. On the one hand, before 2019, legal representatives could request advance payments without the AGS verifying whether the defaulting company really needed them, according to Anticor. Since then, a control has been put in place and many requests refused (for more than 55 million euros in advances since October 2020, according to Anticor). “These requests for unjustified advances, on presentation of false elements (…) characterize the offense of embezzlement of property”, considers Anticor.
On the other hand, once the requests for advances have been approved, the association “is certain that part of the funds, which must be paid to the employees, will not reach them”, explained to AFP the lawyer. of the association, which accuses certain agents of having embezzled at least 700 million euros.
Another suspected method: the non-reimbursement of the AGS. Defaulting companies must hand over their available assets to the receivers in order to repay the AGS. But Anticor suspects agents of issuing “false certificates of irrecoverability” to keep “in their pocket” the proceeds of the sale of assets. Finally, Anticor denounces the old principle of “labelling”. These labels, awarded “with a wet finger”, allowed many studies to see their costs advanced without “real control”, according to Me Karsenti.