One year after entering the government to manage the impact of the health crisis on SMEs, Alain Griset was sent back on September 22 to the Paris Criminal Court, an extremely rare decision for a minister in office, for declarations of assets and 'incomplete interests.

One year after joining the government to manage the impact of the health crisis on SMEs, Minister Alain Griset was sent back on September 22 to the Paris Criminal Court, an extremely rare decision for a minister in office, for declarations of assets and incomplete interests.

Among the half-dozen members of the government struggling with judicial inquiries, Alain Griset, 68, is the first to be summoned to a criminal court.

This decision could jeopardize his future in government.

"Confusion of heritage"

AFP learned Thursday from the Paris prosecutor's office that the minister would be summoned to appear on September 22 for "incomplete or false declaration of his patrimonial situation" and "of his interests" by a member of the government.

Asked by AFP, the entourage of Alain Griset indicated that he would not make any comment.

The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP), to which members of the government must declare their assets, announced that they would take legal action on November 24 in the case of Alain Griset, the latter having failed to declare " financial participations held in a share savings plan (PEA), as well as the associated cash account, for a total amount of 171,000 euros ". 

The funds concerned, according to a source familiar with the matter, come from the office of the National Confederation of Crafts, Trades and Services (CNAMS) of the North, which had entrusted in 2019 some 130,000 euros to Alain Griset, its then president. , so that he places them on his PEA.

"Alain Griset told the High Authority that he had the agreement of the CNAMS, so that he could make this sum grow, but then we are in the confusion of assets, which is not in accordance with the law ", noted the president of the HATVP Didier Migaud, questioned by AFP.

"Clumsiness"

The purpose of this omission was "to prevent the revelation of facts liable to receive the criminal qualification of breach of trust", had estimated the HATVP about the origin of the funds.

Tracfin, the anti-money laundering unit of Bercy, where the minister works, had made a parallel report to the Lille prosecutor's office, which had opened an investigation for "breach of trust", still ongoing.

The sum had been reimbursed, shortly after his entry into government, by the minister, a craftsman-taxi for more than 30 years until 2016. 

"I showed honesty", defended the minister during the revelation of the facts, affirming to have "brought elements of clarification to the High Authority".

His entourage had pleaded a "clumsiness", without "desire for personal enrichment".

At the beginning of February, Alain Griset's official accommodation in Bercy had been searched.

An independent authority created in 2013 after the Cahuzac scandal at the start of the Hollande quinquennium, the HATVP controls the assets and declarations of interests of nearly 15,000 public officials, ministers, elected officials and senior officials.

It can take legal action if it detects a fraudulent intention or a substantial omission.

Judicial turmoil

The Paris Criminal Court must also try in September three other political figures suspected of omitting comparable statements, also reported by the HATVP: the former strongman of Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, the former boss of Martinique Alfred Marie-Jeanne and the deputy LR Bernard Brochand.

The latter will also be tried for "laundering tax fraud".

Concerning two other ministers, the High Authority on the other hand considered in July that the omissions of declarations of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti and of Roselyne Bachelot, to Culture, "did not present an intentional or substantial character" justifying to seize the justice.

The announcement of the trial against the Minister of SMEs comes two weeks after that of the proceedings instituted on July 16 against Eric Dupond-Moretti, indicted by magistrates of the Court of Justice of the Republic for "illegal taking of interests".

The latter ruled out resigning and Prime Minister Jean Castex renewed "all his confidence" in him.

Several members of the government have resigned since 2017 even before an indictment or the prospect of a trial: the latest departure is that of Jean-Paul Delevoye, the "gentleman pensions", forced to give up his post in December 2019 in the midst of a conflict over this flagship reform.

The High Commissioner admitted that he did not mention several parallel activities in his declaration of interests sent to the HATVP.

The ministers Olivier Dussopt and Sébastien Lecornu are also the subject of preliminary investigations in Paris while the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin is targeted by an investigation for "rape".