On his Instagram account, chef Christophe Leroy still posted photos of his summer quarters in Saint-Tropez a few days ago. Thursday, it is before the criminal court of Draguignan that he must appear for alleged fraudulent bankruptcy, forgery and concealed work. A much less glamorous setting for this cook who likes to present himself close to the jet-set and the stars, and whose name is associated with the scandal of illegal dinners in Paris during confinement.
Three different folders
The facts, which he will have to explain at the bar, are old and actually come under three different files. The most important, in which Christophe Leroy is the only one to appear, concerns acts of bankruptcy between December 2016 and July 2017, and acts of forgery and use of forgery in 2017. As a reminder, bankruptcy can consist of a fraudulent increase in a liability or a misappropriation or concealment of all or part of the asset.
In the two other cases judged on Thursday, and for which companies are also being prosecuted, there is question of the execution of hidden work with regard to several people (for facts between 2013 and 2015 in Ramatuelle, Paris XVI and Saint- Tropez) and deceptive commercial practices (in Ramatuelle, in the summer of 2014).
“We are going to judge the darkest period of his life, the one where he encountered economic and legal difficulties which did not darken the heyday of Christophe Leroy in Saint-Tropez,” says his lawyer, Me Thierry Fradet . “There is no organization, no premeditation, it is the toboggan effect of the problems”, he pleads. According to him, Christophe Leroy is “combative”: “He is ready to assume part of his responsibilities. He wants to explain who he really is, what happened, he is a real entrepreneur. “
“I would have done without the Parisian episode”
The prosecution should request the joining of these three cases, in order to address and expose a context, a personality, a way of doing things, and so that a single sentence is pronounced. “I would have done without the Parisian episode,” confides Thierry Fradet, with reference to “illegal dinners”.
“I trust the magistrates who know how to put aside what has been widely publicized and has not had any legal responses yet,” he takes care to add. Still, the investigations, having resulted in today’s hearing, began long before the pandemic. The penalties are five years’ imprisonment for bankruptcy, and three years for covert work.
–
