On the verge of losing control of his group, the CEO of Casino, Jean-Charles Naouri, is also targeted by a judicial investigation for rape and domestic violence, on a complaint from his wife whom he himself accuses of slanderous denunciation. .
The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP, indicated on Thursday that it had opened a judicial investigation at the beginning of June for rape and domestic violence targeting Jean-Charles Naouri, 74, after the filing of a complaint with the filing of a civil party by his marry. “The investigating judge will investigate to see if there are new elements,” added the prosecution.
The divorcing couple
The complaint was filed last October by the CEO’s wife, and the couple have been in the process of divorce since January 2022. A first complaint filed in February 2022 was dismissed in August because “the offense” had not not been “sufficiently characterized”.
In her October 2022 complaint, which AFP was able to consult, she accuses Jean-Charles Naouri of having committed marital rape during a stay in the South of France in July 2020. The wife, Franco-Israeli , also explains that he was subjected to psychological violence including “insults, humiliations, belittlement” and also describes “isolation” accompanied by “economic control”.
The opening of this investigation “is good news” for the 54-year-old victim, his lawyer, Me Emmanuel Asmar, told AFP, who declined to comment further. ” [Cette] complaint with constitution of civil party automatically leading to the opening of a judicial investigation, we have been waiting for it calmly since the end of 2022 ”, reacted for his part the lawyer of Mr. Naouri, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, requested by the AFP. The wife of Jean-Charles Naouri “used this last resort which led us to file a complaint against him for slanderous denunciation”, she added.
Casino CEO since 2005
Born on March 8, 1949 in Bône (now Annaba) in Algeria, Jean-Charles Naouri, son of a pied-noir, was a finance inspector, then chief of staff to Pierre Bérégovoy, at the Ministry of Social Affairs and then at the Economy and to the Budget, from 1982 to 1986.
First shareholder of the distributor Casino since 1992, he has been its CEO since 2005. Over the years, he has grown the group through acquisitions, often financed by debt, with Franprix, Leader Price, Monoprix, or even the CDiscount e-merchant. But the image of the CEO, long sparkling, is largely tarnished by the end of his announced reign at the head of Casino.
He is indeed on the verge of losing control of the group and his position with the takeover planned by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. His group, strangled by debt, was overtaken by a commercial and stock market tumble, and several legal proceedings.
Agreement in principle
Announced on July 28, the agreement in principle for financial restructuring concluded between the distributor Casino, its buyers the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Attestor fund, and its key creditors is “a strong legal promise”, judged Jean-Charles Naouri in an interview published by Point Wednesday.
“I put all my energy” so that Casino, whose “financial situation was compromised two or three months ago, is no longer in this position. I am proud of myself. It was not won,” he said.
He believes that with this agreement “the assets of the group, the stores and the teams are not affected”. “I’m happy with it and I think I did my duty,” he said.