Europe 1 with AFP 5:20 p.m., January 27, 2023
Jean-Louis Baillot, one of the former CEOs of the French subsidiary of Ikea, saw his sentence reduced on appeal to four months in prison suspended and a fine of 20,000 euros, in the case of spying on several hundred employees. between 2009 and 2012. Ikea France had been sentenced in June 2021 to a fine of one million euros, but had not appealed.
One of the former CEOs of the French subsidiary of Ikea, Jean-Louis Baillot, saw his sentence reduced on appeal to four months in prison suspended and a fine of 20,000 euros, in the case of spying on several hundred employees. between 2009 and 2012. The Versailles Court of Appeal in Yvelines acquitted him of the charge of "concealment of personal data by fraudulent means" and found him guilty of "complicity in the collection of personal data" concerning the case of a manager in 2008.
A fine of one million euros in June 2021
"The court of appeal acquitted my client of an organization of a spy system but he remains convicted in the case of an executive", reacted to AFP his lawyer Me François Saint-Pierre.
"It is a very favorable decision compared to the first judgment but which, I regret, does not completely relax him".
Ikea France had been sentenced in June 2021 to a fine of one million euros, but had not appealed.
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The French subsidiary had appeared for two weeks in March 2021 before the Versailles Criminal Court alongside around fifteen natural persons - senior executives, store managers and police officers - against some 120 civil parties including unions.
Hundreds of employees, between 2009 and 2012, had been scrutinized, their assets, private lives and criminal records scrupulously peeled.
Jean-Pierre Fourès sentenced on appeal to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 euros
In September, during the appeal trial, the Advocate General had requested confirmation of the sentence pronounced at first instance against Mr. Baillot, i.e. two years in prison suspended and a fine of 50,000 euros.
Jean-Louis Baillot, a former CEO of the French furniture subsidiary, Dariusz Rychert, the administrative and financial director at the time, Jean-Pierre Fourès, the former boss of the private investigation company Eirpace and Richard Jimenez, Ikea store manager, appeared before the Versailles Court of Appeal after challenging their conviction in June 2021.
On Friday, Jean-Pierre Fourès was sentenced on appeal to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 euros.
At the helm in March 2021, the former director of risk management Jean-François Paris had admitted sending lists of employees "to be tested" to Jean-Pierre Fourès, then director of Eirpace and ex-police officer of General Intelligence.
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The latter is suspected of having asked his network to illegally consult police files to collect confidential data on employees.
Store manager Richard Jimenez was released on Friday by the Versailles Court of Appeal, as was Dariusz Rychert, former administrative and financial director.