Former minister Caroline Cayeux has been targeted since December 5 by a preliminary investigation after a report from the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) on her heritage, the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP on Wednesday. confirming information from Le Monde.

The investigation has been open since December 5 for incomplete or misleading declaration of assets to the HATVP and laundering of tax fraud, and has been entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of economic crime (BRDE), said the public prosecutor.

The HATVP had indicated at the end of November that it had taken legal action, suspecting a “false evaluation” of the heritage of the former Minister Delegate for Local Authorities, in particular concerning a Parisian apartment of 210 m2, and “tax fraud”.

The High Authority had mentioned in a press release “significant reductions in the value of his property”, his main residence in Paris and a house located in Ille-et-Vilaine, “of about half the overall value of these two goods”. “She could not ignore the fair value,” said the HATVP.

Following the revelations on the subject, Ms. Cayeux had resigned from her post of Minister for Territorial Collectivities “not to hinder the action of the government”.

She had then challenged the assessment of the HATVP and claimed to have made a corrective declaration of her assets by “taking into account the observations” of the High Authority, which had alerted her when she made her declaration of assets as mayor of Beauvais in 2021.

Why “such sudden media coverage (…) even though the investigation has been underway for several months without any new element”? Asked Me Myriam Mayel, one of Ms. Cayeux’s lawyers.

“The mentioned qualification of money laundering by investment operation or concealment of a hypothetical tax fraud is perfectly aberrant, Ms. Cayeux having never hidden the least of her assets”, added her other lawyer, Me Edouard de Lamaze.

“Such amalgamations as well as incessant media communication are totally excessive and do not fail to surprise for a simple real estate valuation case”, believe the two lawyers.

03/08/2023 15:31:39 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP