Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted Tuesday by a judge for illegal financing of his 2012 presidential election, in the investigation of false invoices and accounts Bygmalion of his campaign.
the former head of state, which aims to compete in the primary of his camp in the fall to return to power in 2017, was heard all day by judge Serge Tournaire financial, who suspects that his campaign accounts were rigged to hide an explosion of legal expenditure ceiling of 22.5 million euros.
after the hearing, he “was indicted for illegal campaign finance chief Elections for, as a candidate, exceeded the legal ceiling of election expenses, “said the public prosecutor of Paris, Francois Molins, in a statement.
” formal infringement “s’ is used to relativize his lawyer Thierry Herzog, who expressed his “satisfaction” while announcing the “challenges”. “No facts related Bygmalion folder (is) blamed” for Nicolas Sarkozy, he argued.
In fact, the former head of state was placed under the status of assisted witness for heads of forgery, fraud and breach of trust, which are directly related to the implementation of the system of false invoices. Former leaders of the campaign, the UMP or Bygmalion Thirteen other people are under investigation in this case.
The former head of the state is already indicted him for corruption and trafficking influence in another case, that of the plays in which he is believed to have sought, in early 2014, with a senior judge, information covered by the secrecy in judicial proceedings. In this case, the investigating judges have notified the completion of their investigations and the party president’s Republicans risk a referral to the criminal court.
Bygmalion survey, the name of the company that organized his rallies, door originally on an extensive system of false invoices to conceal the explosion of the legal spending limit. These false invoices were intended to impute to the UMP, become Republicans, some € 18.5 million of expenditures that should have been going into the campaign account. In the end, the Constitutional Council had still rejected this account for an overrun of a few hundred thousand euros
-. “A farce” –
Several executives Bygmalion, its accounting and Jerome Lavrilleux the UMP, have recognized the existence of fraud in false invoices, but no protagonist has questioned Nicolas Sarkozy decided to have or have had knowledge.
“I think it is impossible that he has been informed”, claimed in custody Jerome Lavrilleux, former right-hand man Jean-Francois Cope.
The survey shows while Nicolas Sarkozy has sought and received more rallies in mid-March 2012, while the risk to cross the red line was known to the campaign team.
the police found an email March 19, in which Eric Cesari, then director general of the UMP, notes from the campaign manager Guillaume Lambert’s “desire of the President to hold a public meeting each day from next week.”
However, Guillaume Lambert told police he had informed the president candidate of “budgetary constraints” imposed by a note from the accountant, who was pointing a ceiling overrun risk and prohibited any additional expense.
Heard by the investigators in September, Nicolas Sarkozy assured not remember and played down the cost of events added. As for William Lambert, he said, without convincing the judges that negotiations on tariffs of previous meetings had freed up room for maneuver.
“The argument of a campaign that is skids a farce “, claimed Nicolas Sarkozy to investigators. He returned responsibility for false invoices on Bygmalion and then UMP led by Jean-François Copé, placed last week in assisted witness status.
Since then, the investigation has broadened on expenditures that have nothing to do with the communications company founded by relatives of Mr. Cope. Judges query in particular a “presidential” line in the 2012 budget of the party, indicating EUR 13.5 million of expenditures, while three million only were disclosed in the campaign account. Trains, meetings rooms, leaflets, surveys, judges have traced the new forgotten bills, which appear in the detailed accounts of the UMP but not in the campaign account.
17/02 / 2016 1:35:25 – Paris (AFP) – AFP © 2016
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