The prosecution announced on Thursday that the Minister responsible for SMEs Alain Griset would be tried in Paris on September 22. He will be presented to the criminal court for substantial omission in the declaration of his assets and his interests when he entered the government in July 2020.
Last November, two investigations were opened by the prosecution of Lille and Paris for breach of trust. The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (
HATVP), to whom members of the government must declare their assets, announced that they would take legal action on November 24 in the case of Alain Griset, the latter having failed to declare “financial participations held in a stock savings plan ( PEA), as well as the associated cash account, for a total amount of 171,000 euros ”.
Towards an upcoming resignation?
In detail, Alain Griset will be judged for “incomplete or false declaration of his patrimonial situation” and “of his interests” by a member of the government. Such a summons is extremely rare for a minister in office, and could jeopardize his future within the government.
The purpose of this omission was “to prevent the revelation of facts likely to receive the criminal qualification of breach of trust”, had estimated the HATVP about the origin of the funds. Tracfin, the anti-money laundering unit of Bercy, where the minister works, in parallel made a report to the Lille prosecutor’s office, which had opened an investigation for “breach of trust”, still ongoing.
“I have shown honesty”
The funds concerned, according to a source familiar with the matter, come from the office of the National Confederation of Crafts, Trades and Services (CNAMS) of the North, which had entrusted in 2019 some 130,000 euros to Alain Griset, its then president. , so that he places them on his PEA. The sum had been reimbursed, shortly after his entry into the government, by the minister, a craftsman-taxi for more than 30 years until 2016. “I have shown honesty”, defended the minister during the revelation of the facts, claiming to have “brought elements of clarification to the High Authority”.
The Paris Criminal Court must also try in September three other political figures suspected of the same omissions of statements also reported by the HATVP: the former strongman of Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, the former boss of Martinique Alfred Marie- Jeanne and the deputy LR Bernard Brochand.