VIDEO – Octogenarian deprived of his savings: Bruno Le Maire will “re-examine” the file

Bercy goes “re-examine“the file of Francine Chaffard. This is what Bruno Le Maire announced on Monday on LCI, a few hours after the Defender of Rights exceptionally decided to publicize the case of this octogenarian. The latter lost nearly 90,000 euros in Treasury bills, the State refusing so far to repay them.

Questioned on the subject Monday evening, the minister “said he was very touched by this affair“and said he was going”re-examine” the folder. “If she has not been warned (of the change in the law), it is indeed necessary to reexamine the subject.“, he explained. Asked earlier Monday by AFP, the ministry did not wish to speak on”a special case“in progress, taking refuge behind “professional and fiscal secrecy”.

The case began in 1996, when Francine Chaffard and her husband, who has since died, bought 72 Treasury bills for an amount of 89,944.92 euros, and valid at the time for 30 years. In 2008, however, a change in the law modifies their validity: they will now be prescribed, or expired, in 2013. Despite several trips to its local treasury, in Toulon, to cash vouchers between 2009 and 2011, no one informed Francine Chaffard of this change, she says. So much so that in 2017, when she sought to be reimbursed for other vouchers, she was refused a refusal and then referred the matter to the Defender of Rights.

The latter repeatedly calls on the Ministry of Public Accounts and that of the Economy and Finance to request the “benevolent re-examination of this file“and grant “exceptionally“and on behalf of”equity“the reimbursement of the vouchers, details his special report. But the administration and the heads of Bruno Le Maire’s cabinet responded unfavorably to this request, believing that the State had no obligation to inform about the new law having modified the prescription of the vouchers.

In a press release, the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon who decided, a very rare thing, to publish her special report in the Official Journal, “deplored” the failings of the State in this matter. In its report, it considers in particular that the treasury of Toulon committed “mistakes” which engage the administration.