Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt announced to AFP on Friday that the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had upheld the offense of “favouritism” in the case of two works of art received as gifts in 2017.
In a briefing note addressed to his lawyer, “the prosecution considers that there is only one grievance, in this case a formal offense of favoritism in a 2009 public contract”, declared Olivier Dussopt to AFP, adding that “no corruption” is alleged against him.
A preliminary investigation for illegal taking of interest had been opened against Olivier Dussopt, concerning two lithographs by the painter Gérard Garouste which had been offered to him by a company in 2017, when he was deputy and mayor of Annonay. The investigation was to verify possible facts of “corruption” and “illegal taking of interest”.
In his statement to AFP on Friday evening, the Minister of Labor – on the front line on the disputed pension reform – indicates that the PNF “did its job and carried out an investigation and multiple investigations which brought to light five grievances possible”. “My oral and written expressions have largely convinced the Public Prosecutor’s Office”, which “considers that four out of five of these grievances have no substance and have closed them without further action”. “No corruption is therefore reproached to me”, adds the minister.