In this judicial investigation opened after a complaint from Anticor in 2017, Mr. Ferrand is suspected of having mounted a contentious real estate transaction: the rental from 2011 in Brest by the Mutuelles de Bretagne of premises purchased by his companion, for a annual rent of 42,000 euros.

Former President of the National Assembly (2018-2022), Richard Ferrand, 60, was general manager of Mutuelles de Bretagne from 1998 to 2012, before becoming a pillar of Macronie.

Seized by his lawyers, the investigating chamber of the Douai Court of Appeal had ruled in March 2021 that the facts had been time-barred since 2014 or 2015, i.e. three years after the signing of the lease or after the resignation of Mr. Ferrand Mutuals.

In both cases, before the facts are reported to justice.

A decision contested by Anticor, which during the hearing on June 22 before the Court of Cassation, requested that the limitation period begin when the facts were revealed by the Canard Enchaîné, in 2017.

Neither "non-place" nor "relaxed"

Two years later, the one who was the fourth character of the State was indicted by three Lille investigating judges, and his companion, Sandrine Doucen, placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness.

The Advocate General recommended dismissing Anticor's appeal.

If the Court, which must deliver its judgment at the beginning of the afternoon, follows it, it will pave the way for the end of the proceedings for illegal taking of interest.

"Getting a prescription is not the same as getting a dismissal or a release, which means + move on, there is nothing to see +", pointed out on the eve of the judgment one Anticor lawyer Claire Waquet.

"If the judgment finds the prescription, it can be considered that it puts an end to the procedure" but "the investigating judge can try to ask himself if there is not something which is not prescribed" in the file, she adds.

Another Anticor lawyer, Jérôme Karsenti, mentions for example a lawsuit by Ms. Doucen "for concealment".

In its appeal, Anticor argued that the offense had been "concealed", considering that the relationship between Mr. Ferrand and Ms. Doucen was not known to all the administrators of Mutuelles de Bretagne.

An interpretation challenged at the hearing by the Advocate General.

He considered that no "positive element" tended to show that the couple had "deliberately sought to conceal" their relationship and the terms of the operation.

"Not Los Angeles"

"There was no concealment," insists AFP Emmanuel Piwnica, Mr. Ferrand's lawyer.

For him, Brest "is not Los Angeles (...) everyone knows each other. The members of the board of directors were aware".

The Court of Cassation must also decide on the appeal, filed this time by Richard Ferrand, arguing that the proceedings are null and void on the grounds that the Paris court was not territorially competent.

The investigating chamber rejected this request.

Seized by a first complaint from the association, the prosecutor of Brest had opened a preliminary investigation in June 2017, closed without further action in October 2017.

Anticor had filed a second complaint, with civil action, at the financial center in Paris.

The case was then disoriented in Lille a Parisian magistrate, vice-president of Anticor, having been temporarily present in the procedure.

Former socialist deputy, Richard Ferrand was one of the first supporters of Minister Emmanuel Macron under François Hollande.

He structured the En Marche party, co-piloted the nominations for the 2017 legislative elections, then took the lead of a group of some 300 deputies.

The revelation of the affair, in May 2017, had cost him his short-lived portfolio as Minister of Territorial Cohesion.

Without preventing him from being elected to the perch in the fall of 2018.

In the last legislative elections, he lost the 6th constituency of Finistère, beaten by the candidate Nupes.

© 2022 AFP