What really caused the bankruptcy of Camaïeu? The action taken by the employees with the Commercial Court of Lille has just moved forward one box. Justice ordered, on Thursday, the liquidators of Camaïeu and the Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) of Michel Ohayon, the last owner of the ready-to-wear brand, to provide accounting documents requested by former employees, a we learned from their lawyer.
“We will now do everything to ensure that this decision is implemented. We need documents that will allow us to have a complete picture of what has happened over the past two years, “said AFP, the lawyer for these 250 ex-employees, Fiodor Rilov, rejoicing of having “succeeded”.
“Precisely retrace operations”
Thanks to the documents requested, the employees hope to be able to “precisely retrace the operations” which led to the deterioration of the situation and then to the bankruptcy of Camaïeu and “in particular to identify the operations with the other companies of the group, in particular Go Sport”, currently in receivership, underlines the lawyer.
The court order, consulted by AFP, specifies that the documents requested which are not in the possession of the liquidators must be provided by the FIB within fifteen days, under penalty of a fine of 3,000 euros per document and per day of delay.
“We will appeal this decision if it obliges us to provide under penalty documents that we do not have and cannot have”, reacted to AFP, the management of Hermione, People & Brands (HPB), distribution branch of the FIB. She said she had not yet “been able to read the deliberations or the list of documents requested”.
The impression of having been “floured”
In August 2020, the FIB had taken over 511 shops and around 2,600 employees of Camaïeu, then placed in receivership. Two years later, in September 2022, the brand was liquidated following new proceedings before the commercial court.
After the liquidation of Camaïeu, Me Rilov and the CGT delegate Thierry Siwik had encouraged, during a general meeting, the employees to initiate this procedure, explaining that they had the impression that they had been “floured” since the takeover by FIB.
Another HPB brand, Go Sport, was placed in receivership by the Grenoble Commercial Court in mid-January. In November, the Grenoble prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation for “abuse of social good” concerning this sporting goods brand, whose unions have been alarmed in recent months by significant money raised to the parent company HPB.