Paris (AFP)

At the Bygmalion trial, the co-founder of the agency which organized Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign meetings in 2012 told the court on Thursday the "taboo" of the system of double invoices to hide excessive spending, then the "delivery" of revelations.

Since Tuesday, the court has heard from three of the four former Bygmalion executives who appear for the fraud, alongside former members of the campaign team and the UMP (now Les Républicains).

The former head of state, tried only for "illegal campaign financing", is not present at the hearing.

In turn, Franck Attal (who organized the meetings), Sébastien Borivent, his hierarchical superior, and Guy Alvès, co-founder of Bygmalion, tell the same version.

The meetings which accelerate and the Sarkozy team which always wants more, then the insane demand of the UMP: the authorized spending limit will explode, it will be necessary to charge the party.

In Bygmalion, President Bastien Millot, very close to the boss of the UMP Jean-François Cope, gives his "green light", they all assure at the helm.

M. Millot is looking at the ground.

He always maintained that he didn't know anything.

The UMP, "it is its client", insists Guy Alvès, who does not however want to discard.

"I accepted. I was aware that it was illegal. I did it and I assume it", he proclaims of his rapid flow which sometimes rises in the treble.

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"We had no choice. If I say + no +, my company is dead and I am killing 40 employees."

And then, what recourse?

"I do not see the president-candidate calling me to apologize and ask me in what order he puts the check!".

President Caroline Viguier is surprised at the ease with which the fraud was accepted.

"One has the impression that this passage of + yellow line + as you say, arouses very little reaction".

All the same, she recalls, we are talking about campaign expenses which would have amounted to at least 42.8 million euros, almost double the authorized legal ceiling.

For Bygmalion, it is 80% of the invoice - 16 out of 20 million - which will disappear from the accounts and will be invoiced to the UMP under cover of fictitious agreements.

- "It fits ?"

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Guy Alvès reflects.

"Oddly enough, once the decision is made, it becomes a taboo subject for us."

And when we have to talk about it, for example when new invoices arrive, we do it in a roundabout way.

"We say to ourselves + do you know if it fits? + But we do not formalize the offense".

Until November 2012 and a first article in Le Canard enchaîné.

Guy Alvès, Franck Attal and Bastien Millot meet.

"We acknowledge the fact that if things were to go wrong we would take our responsibilities," says Mr. Alvès.

"If by any chance we had to go to this extreme case which is ... today", he said with a nervous little laugh, "it looks like the truth".

To cover themselves, they have a USB key - which will later be given to investigators - loaded with evidence of double accounting.

In 2014, came the avalanche of revelations in the press.

And the accusations of personal enrichment - "You gorged yourself during the campaign, you robbed the UMP", recalls Guy Alvès - but also the thesis of a constitution of "slush fund" for the political future of Mr. Cope.

"It lasts five months, I have death threats, the collaborators are barring one after the other, I am being massacred by the press and the UMP deputies", he recounts.

"It's a trauma".

Until the "deliverance" when the real fraud is revealed in Liberation, he said.

Among the defendants of the campaign team, no one except Jérôme Lavrilleux recognized the system.

The president has one last question for Guy Alvès:

- How do you explain M. Millot's position?

- It is totally incomprehensible, "he assures us.

His questioning continues on Friday, before that of Bastien Millot.

© 2021 AFP