Paris (AFP)
Ex-MEP MoDem Sylvie Goulard was indicted Friday by the judge in charge of the investigation of allegedly fictitious jobs assistants of MEPs, learned Monday the AFP from judicial source.
Goulard, who failed to be named in the new European Commission because of the investigation, was indicted for "embezzlement of public funds" after his hearing at the Paris court, according to this source.
The judges of the financial center of the Paris court have since 15 November indicted several people in this investigation, including "complicity in embezzlement of public funds." Among them are former Minister of Justice Michel Mercier and Chief Financial Officer MoDem Alexandre Nardella.
MoDem chairman François Bayrou is summoned Friday.
The magistrates seek to ascertain whether parliamentary associates were paid by European Parliament funds when in fact they were assigned to other tasks for the centrist party.
The opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office in June 2017 led to the resignation of Mr Bayrou from the post of Minister of Justice, as well as those of Marielle de Sarnez from the post of Minister for European Affairs and Sylvie Goulard as Minister of the Armed Forces.
This case, added to the controversy over services performed for an American think tank, has cost Sylvie Goulard its place in the new European Commission, refused in October by MEPs.
The former MEP (2009-2017), currently vice-governor of the Banque de France, had accepted this summer to reimburse the European Parliament 45,000 euros.
This sum corresponds to eight months' salary for one of his assistants, Stéphane Thérou, for whom she could not provide "proof of work". On August 30, the European Parliament closed the case for his case.
The MoDem is not the only political formation in the lens of justice for supposedly fictitious jobs in the European Parliament. A similar investigation was thus opened for France Insoumise (LFI) and for the National Front (FN), in which twenty people, including Marine Le Pen, were indicted.
© 2019 AFP