Flags in front of an Ikea store (illustration).

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M.LIBERT / 20 MINUTES

  • In addition to the furniture firm, fifteen people are tried from Monday by the criminal court, suspected of having participated in this vast spy network.

  • The defendants face up to five years' imprisonment.

At the criminal court in Versailles,

The first times, Jean-François Paris was very careful: he had the letters sent to his home so as to leave no trace.

Then he carefully destroyed them.

Because, recognizes this Monday at the bar of the criminal court of Versailles the former "Mr. security" of Ikea, he knew very well that he should never have had these documents in his hands.

In-depth investigations - legal history, family situation, financial or medical problems… - on potential recruits, trade unionists or employees deemed too vindictive.

Sometimes even on clients in dispute with the development giant.

Like the investigations carried out in 2009 against P. who contested a purchase worth 160 euros ... and whose investigation will be invoiced 150 euros.

Fifteen people, including two former leaders of Ikea France, senior executives of the company and five police officers, appear until April 2 for "unlawful collection and disclosure of personal data", "violation of professional secrecy" or even "concealment. ".

Among them, Jean-François Paris, suspected of being at the heart of this system, is one of the few to recognize the facts.

At the helm, the former head of the security department admits to having sent lists of people to be "tested" while knowing, "in the way the labels were made", that part of the information came illegally from police files or of gendarmerie.

According to him, the practice is old, long before his arrival in 1998, and if he takes care to erase his emails, others are less careful.

“The invoices were sent to headquarters, we were not at the height of discretion.

"

"We brought information by disguising the origin"

As early as 2002, these “morality” investigations were entrusted in particular to Jean-Pierre Fourès, at the head of a security company.

Dozens of exchanges between the two men were exhumed, more than 300 names “sent” him until 2012, when the scandal broke out.

Straight as an "i" in his gray three-piece suit, the septuagenarian assures that he has never indulged in the "ease" of soliciting police or gendarmes, which nevertheless abounds in his address book.

His research, he says, he carried out by showing "ingenuity", by questioning the land register, by scanning the regional daily press or simply on the Internet.

"But why do you present your research under the formulation of Stic?"

», Wonders the president.

“That's what the customer asks for,” he replies without getting disassembled.

And to specify: "We brought information by disguising the origin".

On the list of 338 names transmitted by Ikea over the years, only twenty have been the subject of a search on a file of the police or the gendarmerie, insists his lawyer, Me Marc François.

The president repeated it: the majority of research dates from before 2009 and are therefore prescribed, no verification could be carried out.

In the course of their investigations, the investigators nevertheless discovered that in 2009, the names of eight candidates for positions in the Reims store were entered in the files of the gendarmerie from Mayotte ... where one of the longtime friends of Jean-Pierre Fourès.

Impossible, argues the person concerned, the research took place in August… a period in which he still takes his vacation.

The soldier will never come to explain this strange research: after being placed under the status of assisted witness, he was not referred to the criminal court.

This is one of the main difficulties in this case: if the investigators discovered a great deal of research on Ikea employees in the files of the police and the gendarmerie, to prove that they were expressly for the The company's account was not easy and some of these consultations were deemed "insignificant".

The defendants face up to five years in prison.

Justice

When Ikea spied on its employees or its "troublesome" customers

Justice

Espionage of employees: Ikea and several ex-leaders sent back to correctional services

  • Spying

  • Paris

  • Justice

  • Ikea

  • Trial