Three years after the revelations that caused the presidential campaign of the candidate LR to collapse, the trial of François and Penelope Fillon begins Monday before the Paris Criminal Court.
Was Penelope Fillon really the parliamentary assistant to her husband François Fillon when he was a member of parliament, or was it a fictitious job? The question is at the heart of the trial which begins Monday, February 24, three years after the incredible fall of the right-wing candidate, in the wake of the revelations published in The chained Duck. The former Prime Minister is referred to the Paris Criminal Court, mainly for embezzlement of public funds, like Marc Joulaud, his former deputy in the National Assembly. Penelope Fillon is tried for complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds. The couple is also dismissed for complicity and concealment of abuse of social property. All three face up to ten years’ imprisonment, a fine of 150,000 euros and ineligibility. Franceinfo returns to what the justice system accuses them of.
An “incidental role” of parliamentary assistant
“Penelope was my first and most important collaborator”, says François Fillon. From 1981, the year of his first election as a deputy in Sarthe, to 2013, Penelope Fillon reread speeches, went to fairs, received voters and sorted mail, at their Sarthois home, a manor located in Solesmes. “She was the link with the constituents”, declared his lawyer to franceinfo. Pierre Cornut-Gentille regrets the ignorance of the magistrates about “the special nature of the job of parliamentary assistant”.
The examining magistrates do not hear it that way. After two years of investigation, they are convinced that this job was “Fictional” and “all his doings” fall under “the daily activity of a wife and mother”. They recall that François Fillon has always been assisted by a multitude of collaborators, sending his wife to a “accessory role”. Jardinier, local journalists, former collaborators, prefects in post at the time … Those who worked with her said nothing else. “The various testimonies cited do not demonstrate the reality of the work of parliamentary assistant for which Penelope Fillon was paid for years”, point the examining magistrates.
Penelope Fillon says it herself, in an interview with Sunday Telegraph, in 2007, exhumed when the scandal broke out: “I have never been his assistant or anything like that.” The examining magistrates see it as “confirmation” of their suspicions.
“When we know her nature reserve, the concern she always had not to let believe that she was playing a ‘political’ role, in the partisan sense of the term, with her husband, we can see (…) that this interview obviously does not constitute a serious indication allowing to affirm that his jobs of parliamentary assistant were fictitious “, retorts the defense of Penelope Fillon.
She did not say that she was a parliamentary assistant because she did not have to. It would have been ridiculous to say it, it would have brought nothing. When she went to a local demonstration, she was the wife of François Fillon.at franceinfo
The judges dismiss these arguments. “The investigation showed that [François et Penelope Fillon] both had greatly amplified the reality, so as to justify the remuneration paid “, they point out in their order for reference. The sum is pretty: the magistrates estimate that more than 408,000 euros of public money have been “Diverted” between 1998 and 2013. They decided to go back twenty years, not beyond.
In short, they consider that Penelope Fillon’s performances were “fictitious or overvalued”. “They say that she was paid too well for what she did! They do not have the right, by virtue of the separation of powers. It is the interference of the judiciary in the legislative power”protests Pierre Cornut-Gentille. Guest of “You have the floor” on France 2, on January 30, François Fillon denounced “a prosecution procedure”, while recognizing “that he owed explanations” to the French. “He has a form of impatience to be able to express himself publicly”, assured AFP its defender, Antonin Lévy. Contacted by franceinfo, the lawyer refused any further comments before the trial.
With Marc Joulaud, “still less consistency”
Between 2002 and 2007, when François Fillon was Minister of Social Affairs, he left his seat as deputy to Marc Joulaud. Penelope Fillon then keeps her label of parliamentary collaborator, but for the judges, her work with the substitute has “less consistency yet” than with her husband. She “did not supply Marc Joulaud with notes, sheets or press reviews, did not correct his speeches, did not receive anyone at his home at his request”, they point out.
What was she doing Penelope Fillon explained to investigators that her objective was to bring weight to the exercise of the mandate of Marc Joulaud, 34, a “shy boy”. She had to help him “to win at the local level, while allowing François Fillon to keep in touch with his constituents in Sarthe”. So she kept working “indirectly” for her husband. As with her husband, discussions with Marc Joulaud took place “only orally”. According to the words of the former substitute, now a candidate for mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, it was not without three weeks that they saw each other, often in a “Coincidental”. “A fairly low frequency of meetings”, for magistrates.
“Under these conditions, it clearly appears that the employment of Penelope Fillon was nothing other than the consideration in lieu of substitute offered by François Fillon to his former collaborator and a bias for François and Penelope Fillon to increase their income “, assent the judges in their ordinance. Penelope Fillon’s salary was also “higher than that of his employer deputy”. money “Hijacked” is estimated at 645,600 euros. Thus, in total, over the period 1998-2013, more than one million euros of public money were “Diverted” with the jobs of parliamentary assistant of Penelope Fillon, calculate the magistrates.
Serious doubts about the employment of their elders
François Fillon is also suspected of having “Cornered” the funds available from his “collaborator credit” by successively employing, from 2005 to 2007, his two elders Marie and Charles as parliamentary assistants, when he was a senator from Sarthe. “The contracts were full-time and for very comfortable wages, but we can seriously doubt that these jobs really occupied the two children of François Fillon thirty-five hours a week”, underline the examining magistrates. Marie Fillon combined this job with a full-time internship in a law firm and her brother Charles was writing a DEA thesis.
The wages received, estimated at 117,400 euros, were collected on the joint account of Penelope and François Fillon, according to the investigators. This is why the former senator is referred to the criminal court for embezzlement of public funds and his wife for concealment of the proceeds of this crime, while neither of the two children is prosecuted. “They were probably not fully aware that they actually benefited from a job of convenience”, believe the magistrates.
A post of “convenience” at the “Revue des deux mondes”
“Pauline Camille” : it is under this pseudonym that Penelope Fillon signed her critics in the Review of the two worlds, literary magazine owned by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, president of Fimalac and above all a long-time friend of François Fillon. In May 2012, the former Prime Minister breathes the name of his wife “who is afraid of getting bored after leaving Matignon”. Penelope Fillon was immediately recruited as a literary advisor, responsible for reflecting on the revival of the title. Created in 1829, it collapsed. She also intends to write reading notes.
Penelope Fillon quickly “Intuition” that his work is not “not wanted” and, “disappointed to be underemployed”, finally resigned in December 2013. “I felt it was better for everyone to stop”, she explains to the investigators. “It’s a real job. The missions entrusted have been carried out. Two reading sheets were published, but she wrote ten. She asked for work, she was not willing to take advantage”, explains his lawyer.
For investigating magistrates, “we can seriously doubt the very reality of this mission, which may have been purely and simply invented”.
The employment of literary advisor granted by Marc de Lacharrière to Penelope Fillon was pure convenience, without real consideration and intended to provide him with remuneration.in their prescription
The amount of social abuse linked to this job is estimated at 135,000 euros by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière himself. The billionaire “ended up admitting that Penelope Fillon had in fact produced nothing”. After his appearance on prior admission of guilt in this case, he was sentenced in December 2018 to eight months suspended prison sentence and 375,000 euros fine for misuse of corporate property.
An advantageous loan passed over in silence
Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière is a generous friend. In May 2012, he loaned 50,000 euros to François Fillon to finance the renovation of his house. However, he failed to declare the loan to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP). To the investigators, he said he was unaware that the loans between individuals had to be declared. He had also declared to the HATVP a bank loan of the same amount and for the same purpose, taken out in 2014. The loan granted by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière was finally repaid as soon as the “Penelopegate” was launched.
Despite everything, François Fillon will be tried for “breach of the reporting obligations to the HATVP by a parliamentarian”, because the omission of this loan, “which was not a simple oversight or negligence, can be described as substantial”, according to the magistrates.
On the other hand, the elements collected from his company 2F are “too tenuous to justify prosecution”. Likewise, François Fillon was not dismissed for having received the luxurious costumes offered by lawyer Robert Bourgi. It is however the only “fault” which he recognized on France 2, on January 30th.
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