The list of investigations targeting Macronie is growing: investigations have just been launched to determine whether the microparty of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, benefited from illegal donations during his campaign for the primary of the right in 2016, which the latter defends himself against.
The Economic Crime Repression Brigade (BRDE) of the Parisian judicial police must establish whether illegal donations were made to this microparty entitled “With BLM”, which collected two million euros for the 2016 right-wing primary according to the Mediapart website.
This preliminary investigation was revealed by Mediapart and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter at AFP.
The investigations were launched on June 2 for “participation in the financing of a political party by a legal person through donations or the provision of advantages at a price lower than those usually practiced” and for “acceptance by the political party of these same advantages “, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.
These offenses are punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.
Bruno Le Maire rejected these accusations.
The minister is “surprised” by the referral to justice by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Funding, his entourage told AFP.
“The CNCCFP had indeed validated the accounts of the BLM association without reservation by letter dated November 21, 2022”, which indicates, still according to the same source, that the accounts “do not reveal either incomplete scope or manifest inconsistency”.
During the right-wing primary in 2016, Bruno Le Maire came in fifth place with 2.4% of the vote. A bitter failure.
Despite calls for donations, he subsequently struggled to pay off his debts for this microparty, put to sleep after the elections.
Invoices from unpaid service providers are in the sights of investigators. Mediapart specifies that, out of “more than a dozen” unpaid service providers, the largest canceled debts come from two political communication specialists: Experian (with an unpaid invoice of 24,990 euros) and Catch Digital Strategy (9,000 euros) .
Questioned by the CNCCFP, in observations available online, the microparty had in particular justified these canceled debts by exceeding the “legal limitation period” of five years.
“On two invoices, the CNCCFP requested additional information, which was provided to it. These two invoices were the subject of a dispute with the service providers. In the absence of a return from them, these two invoices were canceled at the end of the limitation period, in accordance with accounting rules”, explained the entourage of Bruno Le Maire to AFP.
With this investigation, it is a new member of the government who is confronted with legal disputes. Several figures close to the president, from the secretary general of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler to the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti via the Minister of the Armies Sébastien Lecornu or François Bayrou, are implicated in other criminal cases.
The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt will notably be tried from November 27 to 30 for favoritism, suspected of having arranged the award of a public contract dated 2009-2010 to the water treatment group Saur when he was mayor of Annonay (Ardeche).
The electoral campaign accounts of President Emmanuel Macron himself are also of interest to justice: two judicial inquiries have been opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) on suspicion of illegal financing of these campaigns and on the links between relatives of the President and members of the consulting firm McKinsey, who could have worked for free during the 2017 presidential campaign.
A preliminary investigation for aggravated laundering of aggravated tax evasion has also been underway at the PNF since the end of March.
After Emmanuel Macron’s second victory, Bruno Le Maire was reappointed in May 2022 at the head of Bercy, which he led during the first term of the current head of state.
At 54, he is one of the ministers with one of the longest lives in the Ministry of Economy and Finance under the Fifth Republic. He was also Secretary of State for European Affairs (2008-2009) and Minister of Agriculture (2009-2012).
06/12/2023 16:37:01 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP