When Pierre Botton released from prison in 1996, he said he was transformed by his 20 months of detention. "The prison saved my life. I was losing myself, I had only one value: money," he said then. On Wednesday, the ex-businessman is back in court. He, who had been convicted in the 1990s for misuse of corporate property, will be tried for having embezzled the money from his association to fight recidivism.
Interlocutor of public authorities
When he was released, the repentant businessman had founded an association, "Les prisons du coeur", which would become "Together against recidivism". It attracts wealthy patrons, such as the Axa and Vinci groups, as well as renowned sponsors such as Michel Drucker and Yannick Noah. Pierre Botton then becomes an interlocutor of the public authorities, he is even charged with a mission on the "prison shock" in 2010.
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Three years ago, it was the subject of a report by Tracfin. The Bercy anti-money laundering service had detected suspicious transfers between Pierre Botton's personal account and that of his association. He is today suspected of having diverted several hundred thousand euros in donations for the works of his apartment in Paris, his villa in Cannes and luxury trips. Pierre Botton formally denies the facts and is indignant that this case calls into question all of his work for the benefit of the detainees.