The Minister responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises was found guilty of failing to declare a portion of his heritage and his interests to the High Authority for the transparency of public life.
Le Monde with AFP
Ten to twelve months of suspended prison. This had been required against the Minister responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises, Alain Griset, in his trial for “incomplete or false declaration of his patrimonial situation”. It is finally six months of suspended prison and a suspended three-month deleigibility sentence that he was sentenced, Wednesday, December 8, by the judges of the e Chamber of the Tribunal Correctional of Paris.
To the government since July 2020, Mr. Grégéet was the Prime Minister in office to appear before a correctional court, for failing to declare, in August 2020, after his appointment, part of his heritage and his interests at the High Authority for the transparency of public life (HATVP). He was suspected of having intentionally hidden the holding of an EUR 171,000 equity savings plan (PEA), as well as “direct investments” in several companies, such as the French Games or Natixis.
Also in question, a sum of 130,000 euros placed on its PEA, which belonged to the National Confederation of Crafts and Services (CNAMS) of the North, an interprofessional organization that Mr. Griset has been running since 1991.
“Mal recommended” by “sachazing”
In front of the Tribunal, Mr. Gréset argued that he had received in August 2019 “mandate” of CNAMS to “grow this sum over a short term in order to buy a property”. He had, in passing, congratulated the capital gain of 19,000 euros in eleven months. “My mandate was to manage this money as President of CNAMS. Not being president, this mandate stopped. This money did not belong to me. He never belonged me before being minister. , let alone after, “he supported.
The HATVP had grasped justice in November 2020 after noticing the omission of Mr. Griset. For the institution, the omission of declaration was essentially aimed at “to prevent the revelation of facts that could receive the criminal qualification of abuse of trust”.
The Prosecutor recalled that the CNAMS, as a legal person, did not have the right to open a PEA reserved for natural persons. “I was badly advised,” said Griset at the hearing, rejecting “the clumsiness” on his banker, accountants and other “sachazing who did not tell me anything”. During his trial, Mr. Gréset, 68, a former taxi craftsman from the north of France, pleaded the “clumsiness” and rejected all “dishonesty”.
His lawyer pleaded the relaxation, stressing that his client had “no account abroad, from a screen company and that there was no massive tax fraud”. In case of conviction, “I will continue as long as the President [Emmanuel Macron] I [will] trust”, said the minister in mid-September.