The camera is discreetly hidden in a backpack placed on the driver’s seat who, suspicious, immortalizes a scene worthy of a film. “Count this wad! Saïd Meliouh, the director of the day, takes care, without being spotted, to raise the camera well in order to frame, in the center of the lens, the face of Renaud Chervet, who knows nothing of what is happening. plot. He even turns on the ceiling light, so that we can perfectly identify on the video who is then a senior official of the Bouches-du Rhône departmental council.
Dressed in a coat and a scarf, this community executive, who has a key role in the awarding of public contracts, seizes hundreds of 50 euro notes that Saïd Meliouh hands him, this night of January 2016 , somewhere in Marseilles. Renaud Chervet licks his fingers, and counts one by one. “I’m counting again, we’re calm,” he explains, in a calm tone. As the sum grows, a small smile appears on the face of the executive of the county council. The official rolls up the bills and stuffs the bribes into his inside coat pocket. “Normally, in a week, I sign, recalls Saïd Meliouh. I’ll give you another 10,000 plus the 10,000 from [marché numéro] 6. That makes you 20,000. “A few minutes later, Renaud Chervet promises to” put one aside for sure “, before leaving the car on a joke.
The video, the starting point of a vast investigation
But laughing, there was no longer any question this Monday morning before the Marseille criminal court. It’s a safe bet that if Saïd Meliouh had immortalized this moment, and kept this video in a USB key found by chance by the investigators, it was not really for the images to be broadcast by the courts, after having constituted the starting point of a vast investigation which splashed the departmental council of Bouches-du-Rhône.
All week, a dozen people are appearing in this vast case of corruption, favouritism, money laundering and association of criminals, which occurred between 2012 and 2016. A case in which Renaud Chervet, former director of management, administration and accountant of the county council, is suspected of having monetized technical and financial information allowing companies to secure public contracts from the county council.
“Looks like a James Bond”
For long minutes, the president of the court broadcasts the many videos that Saïd Meliouh discreetly filmed from his backpack, during these discussions on the corruption pact sealed between the entrepreneur, Renaud Chervet and his accomplice. “It looks like a James Bond,” smiles Céline Ballérini, when mentioning the name of the video files kept by Saïd Meliouh. The images are overwhelming, although the sound sometimes leaves something to be desired. “Next time, you’ll put the backpack closer,” says the president of the court with a smirk.
Facing the big screen that broadcasts the images, Renaud Chervet lowers his head. The viewing is done, most of the time, without it. He seems nervous, stirs in the dock. Hundreds of thousands of euros in cash, distant trips, work at his home estimated at 120,000 euros, high-end vehicles, Renaud Chervet recognizes between two sobs “almost all the facts”. “I was dazzled by the meals, the rhinestones, the gifts, he justifies. At a higher level, we lose our minds. “And to affirm” When you had the tapes reviewed, I plunged back into a nightmare of six and a half years ago. I felt a huge sense of shame. Really, every day, I think about it. The former official faces up to ten years in prison.