Eric Dupond-Moretti, Minister of Justice, and Jean Castex, Prime Minister, traveling to Valenciennes last February. – Francois GREUEZ / SIPA
Anticor can continue its fight against corruption: while the association feared that its approval to take legal action would not be renewed for political reasons, the Prime Minister announced its renewal on Friday, after months of uncertainties. “After six months of instruction, Mr. Castex finally decided that Anticor’s approval could be renewed. A victory for Anticor ”, welcomed the association on its website.
The approval was granted to the association in 2015 and then renewed without difficulty, and officially expired on February 15. But the date of the decision had been extended until Friday, and Anticor had expressed concerns about the renewal. “It is an important responsibility to have the right to take legal action in the name of the general interest and that imposes duties and an obligation of transparency”, underlined Prime Minister Jean Castex last week.
The Minister of Justice targeted by a complaint
The file, lost at first, had been investigated by the Chancellery since October, under the control of the Prime Minister. The Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti, who is the subject of an Anticor complaint before the Court of Justice of the Republic for illegal taking of interest, had withdrawn from the processing of the file.
The government had wished to extend the examination period to obtain answers to the many questions and clarifications sent in recent months, “sometimes unrelated to the criteria for granting approval”, regretted Elise Van Beneden, president since June 2020 of the association which has 6,000 members.
Among these questions was the identity of a major donor, which the anti-corruption association, created in 2002, refused to deliver, pointing to the protection of personal data and an opinion to this effect from the Cnil (National Commission of l information technology and freedoms) on February 1. The identity of the donor ended up being revealed by the press: it is the businessman Hervé Vinciguerra who made his fortune in management software and who owns companies registered in Luxembourg and Singapore.
A payment, made by this relative of Arnaud Montebourg a few days before Anticor’s complaint against the secretary general of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler for “illegal taking of interest” and “trading in influence”, appeared to some as an earmarked donation aimed at financing this procedure. “I never influenced Anticor’s choices in the cases they were leading”,
defended Hervé Vinciguerra in The Obs.
But Anticor’s opponents also accused the anti-corruption association of leading a partisan fight, attacking Macronia and the right. In recent years, it has targeted several close to President Emmanuel Macron: the Secretary General of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler, the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti or recently the Minister of Health Olivier Véran for “favoritism” for the management of the StopCovid application.
“Lack of internal transparency”
The Prime Minister underlined Friday in his press release that the analysis of the request for renewal of approval had “noted a lack of internal transparency on the donations collected”. The text also mentions “a challenge to the conditions for the renewal of the Board of Directors in June 2020, as part of a contentious action brought by some of the members of the association. However, “in view of the responses made by the association”, “the Prime Minister has decided to renew the approval of the Anticor association”, according to the press release.
The association was founded in 2002 by the former anti-corruption judge Eric Halphen and a former elected socialist, Séverine Tessier, “to fight against corruption and restore ethics in politics”. It is made up of citizens and elected officials “of all political tendencies”.
Major player in financial justice
Over the years, she has become an actor, sometimes contested, in financial justice. Its lever: the complaint with the constitution of civil party which allows the quasi-automatic seizure of an examining magistrate and the relaunch of the investigations when an investigation has been closed by the prosecution.
Anticor is at the origin of several judicial inquiries – concerning the former president of the INA (National Audiovisual Institute) Mathieu Gallet, the Elysee polls – and his complaints with the constitution of civil party made it possible to revive the investigations on Alexis Kohler as well as Richard Ferrand (but the Douai Court of Appeal ruled this last case prescribed on Wednesday).
In addition to Anticor, two other associations benefit from this approval in matters of corruption, granted for three years: Sherpa and Transparency international.