Paris (AFP)

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 has 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.

"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 costs, 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 flow organization is made to elude the tax administration", supports Mr. Goldszlagier, who specifies that Mr. 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 demanding 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".

- "One day con artist, always con artist" -

"There is, from the start, a sentence that sums up the whole investigation: + One day crook, always crook +", replies, for the defense, Me Jérôme-Marc Bertrand. "There is a presumption of guilt."

"Mr. Botton has succeeded in setting up 67 small, large-scale, fully successful projects. By passing this into the association's budget," insists the council.

He acknowledged certain abuses concerning the sums transferred by the Swiss investor, "but for all that, there is a total absence of breach of trust to the prejudice of the association".

"Come on and tell me: + Botton, he did all this for his lifestyle, no! + He did all that for the prisons", pleads the lawyer.

In the early afternoon, the court reverted to Mr. Botton's personality, opening a window to the past.

When questioned, Pierre Botton spoke of his childhood in Lyon, his professional beginnings in a restaurant close to that of Paul Bocuse, his meeting with Michel Noir, then member of the Rhône, in 1982, at a trade fair dedicated to pharmacy .

Over the questions, we glimpse this time when, as a business owner, he embarked on politics with Michel Noir and had a sumptuous lifestyle, when he frequented RPR officials such as Jacques Chirac, media personalities like Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, from the entertainment world like Coluche.

Until his arrest and his conviction on appeal in 1996, to five years in prison, including 18 months suspended, for abuse of social property.

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