Four years for a “litany of offenses”: the prosecution on Wednesday demanded a prison sentence against Pierre Botton, the ex-businessman convicted of misuse of social property in 1996 and today suspected of having embezzled funds of his association against recidivism. The court will issue its decision on June 2.
In the 1990s, this former Lyonnais entrepreneur spent 20 months in detention after a resounding politico-judicial affair. When he left, he had decided to make a commitment to improve the conditions of detention and to fight the repeat offenders. Claiming his innocence, he has yet again faced a court since Monday, suspected of having improperly recovered part of his association's money for personal gain.
"Why do we ask for four years of a man's life?". The afternoon ends Wednesday and the prosecutor, Julien Goldszlagier, begins his indictment. On the wall of the courtroom, tables, diagrams and figures are projected to describe the complex network of companies and financial flows involved. Breach of trust, abuse of corporate assets, scam, forgery, laundering of tax evasion ... Pierre Botton committed a "litany of offenses" with the sole aim, states the prosecutor, "to ensure his lifestyle", which fluctuated between 20,000 and 36,000 euros per month.
Luxury catering and hotel expenses
"When a patron gave for the association, he gave between a quarter and a third for Mr. Botton, directly", he continues, detailing "the accounting and" legal "set up according to him, by the defendant .
Works and rents in a villa in Cannes, travel, catering and luxury hotel expenses, aesthetics, expenses related to a photographic "hobby" ... all these hobbies were funded indirectly, according to the magistrate, by the association and a Swiss investor, who was also a friend of Pierre Botton.
"All this organization of flows is made to elude the tax administration", supports Julien Goldszlagier, who specifies that Pierre Botton owed, in 2018, 3.6 million euros to the taxman. "The cause is noble, human, just, it deserves our attention and Mr. Botton's commitment must not be dismissed, it was important." But "we do not defend ourselves from offenses with a recognizance," he adds, also requesting a warrant for the deposit against the accused.
The prosecutor finally requests a year in prison against Anne-Valérie Noir, former president of the association and ex-wife of Pierre Botton, tried by his side for "breach of trust".
"Total absence of breach of trust to the detriment of the association"
"There is, from the start, a sentence that sums up the entire investigation:" One day crook, always crook "", replies, for the defense, Me Jérôme-Marc Bertrand. "There is a presumption of guilt." "Mr. Botton has successfully implemented 67 small, large and fully successful projects. By passing this into the association's budget, ”insists the council.
He acknowledged certain abuses concerning the amounts transferred by the Swiss investor, "but for all that, there is a total absence of breach of trust to the detriment of the association". "Come and tell me:" Botton, he did all that for his lifestyle, no! " He did all this for the prisons, ”argues the lawyer.
- Lyon
- Society
- misappropriation