At the Elysee polls trial, the prosecution requested Tuesday a year in prison including six months firm against the former secretary general of the presidency Claude Guéant, as well as penalties ranging from a fine to one year firm for four other former relatives of Nicolas Sarkozy. During an indictment of nearly three hours, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) argued that these contracts, awarded without publicity or call for tenders, should be sanctioned as favoritism at the highest level of the state.
“The public procurement code must apply throughout France, including 55 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré”, the address of the “Castle”, underlined the financial prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin. Right-hand man of the president and “big boss of the Elysee”, Claude Guéant had a “central role in the offenses”, estimated the PNF, requesting his conviction for favoritism and embezzlement of public funds by negligence, with in addition 10,000 euros fine.
Patrick Buisson also in the viewfinder
The prosecution also pointed to the “very special disposition” of this “great State clerk” to “say everything and its opposite” during the investigations, “a real disposition of an experienced delinquent”. The public prosecutor also requested two years’ imprisonment, one of which was a firm year and a 100,000 euro fine against the former adviser Patrick Buisson, as well as a 550,000 euro fine against his two companies, Publifact and Publi-Opinion.
The political scientist, who whispered in Nicolas Sarkozy’s ear at the time, “generated profits by freeing himself from the regulations in force, or worse, by embezzling public funds,” said the magistrates. As an “external adviser”, he was paid around 32,000 euros per month, ie “more than the President of the Republic” paid 19,000 euros, according to the calculations of the PNF, who estimated that the contract signed in 2007 by his company Publifact was a “ploy” to “grab public funds”.
For the PNF, between 2007 and 2009, Patrick Buisson bought 235 surveys from institutes, then sold to the Elysee with “undue” and “exorbitant” margins ranging from 65 to 71%. The former boss of the newspaper Minute, absent at the trial for health reasons, was in addition a “total confusion” between his heritage and that of his companies, added the prosecutors, asking that he also be found guilty of abuse corporate assets for having made his two companies bear around 180,000 euros in personal costs over six years.
Three other advisers implicated
For the prosecution, the other adviser Pierre Giacometti, who founded his consulting company in 2008 after leaving Ipsos, “used the Elysee Palace to launch his business”. He should be sentenced to six months’ suspended imprisonment and a fine of 70,000 euros and his company, renamed No Com, to a fine of 250,000 euros, according to the PNF. The public prosecutor also requested a 500,000 euros fine for concealing favoritism against the Ipsos polling institute, the main beneficiary of orders made directly by the Elysee cabinet, without any contract, between 2007 and 2009.
The accusation was, on the other hand, more lenient for the one who was director of the Elysée’s cabinet, Emmanuelle Mignon, who had a “delinquent behavior” but also a “reforming ambition which cannot be disputed”: a penalty of 10,000 euros fine has been requested. Finally, 5,000 euros of fine were required against the former technical adviser “opinion” Julien Vaulpré, simple “kingpin of the offense of favoritism”.
An “emblematic” dossier
Earlier in the afternoon, the lawyer for the State Judicial Agent, Renaud Le Gunehec, demanded that Patrick Buisson and his companies be ordered to pay “at least” 1.4 million euros of damages, the amount of sums withheld by the prosecution under suspicion of embezzlement of public funds.
Anticor’s lawyer requested 100,000 euros for the association, which “carried the legal and judicial iron” for “ten years”, in an “emblematic” case, which “speaks of democracy, ethics, probity “. The trial ends Wednesday, with defense pleadings. The decision should be reserved.