Magnums of champagne, watches, boxes for weekends… The list of gifts that the just new interim Minister of Health has received from Urgo laboratories is long. And embarrassing. According to Mediapart, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo received gifts worth an estimated 20,000 euros as a pharmacist.
The minister, who rose in rank after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau for disagreement over the immigration law, “is targeted by a judicial investigation opened in June 2023 for having received gifts, without declaring them”, writes the online information site .
Six pharmacists received a bonus of more than 12,000 euros
Thursday evening, the public prosecutor of Le Havre Bruno Dieudonné confirmed that an investigation was opened “on the grounds of “unauthorized perception by a health professional of advantages provided by a person producing or marketing health products”, in the continuation of the case which resulted in the conviction of Urgo laboratories in January 2023 by the Dijon criminal court”.
“The secrecy of the investigation prohibits me from communicating further, in particular on the identity of the pharmacists targeted by this investigation. Over a period from the end of 2015 to the end of 2020, six of them received bonuses for a total amount greater than 12,000 euros,” added the magistrate. Asked by AFP, the minister’s entourage indicated that she “will respond[it] only to the competent authorities.
More than twenty gift deliveries
Pharmacist by profession, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who runs a pharmacy in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), “is suspected of having had luxury products delivered to her on 21 occasions, from 2015 to 2020 – watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne, boxes for weekends…”, according to Mediapart. “Urgo thus sought to retain pharmacists and increase their commercial margins,” continues Mediapart.
In January 2023, Urgo laboratories were fined 1,125,000 euros, including 625,000 suspended, for offering gifts to pharmacists, in return for giving up commercial discounts. According to Mediapart, “a second part of the affair” has begun, with justice looking into all the pharmacists who received gifts.
In Normandy, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) is dealing with around forty files. “The lightest cases (less than 1,000 euros of bonus) are classified. While the other files give rise to the opening of a preliminary investigation, in June 2023,” explains the newspaper, according to which the minister is “among the largest alleged beneficiaries.”