Bygmalion case: Nicolas Sarkozy heard this Tuesday morning by the judges

The former President of the Republic risks being indicted for illegal financing of an electoral campaign.

Nicolas Sarkozy arrived this Tuesday morning at the Parisian examining magistrates to be heard in the investigation into the false invoices of Bygmalion and the accounts of his presidential campaign in 2012, in which he risks an indictment. The former Head of State may, however, come out of the hearing under the intermediate status of assisted witness.

The Bygmalion investigation, named after the company that organized its meetings, originally related to a vast system of false invoices to hide an explosion in the legal spending ceiling for the presidential election, set at 22,5 million euros. These false invoices would have been intended to impute to the UMP, which became Les Républicains, some 18,5 million euros in expenses which should have been included in the campaign account.

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Several executives of Bygmalion, its accountant, as well as Jérôme Lavrilleux at the UMP, have acknowledged the existence of this fraud, but no protagonist has questioned Nicolas Sarkozy for having decided on it or having been aware of it.

The investigation shows, however, that the ex-president asked for and obtained more meetings, around mid-March 2012. However, his campaign manager, Guillaume Lambert, told the police that he had informed him of a note from the accountant pointing out a risk of exceeding the ceiling and prohibiting any additional expenditure.

Heard by investigators in september 2015, Nicolas Sarkozy assured not to remember it and relativized the cost which the added events could generate. "The argument of a skidding campaign is a farce“, he said. He referred the responsibility for the false invoices to Bygmalion and the UMP then led by Jean-François Copé, who was placed under the status of assisted witness.

Read also Bygmalion: Copé celebrates his "innocence", Sarkozy has yet to demonstrate his own

A “presidential” line in the UMP budget

But since then, the investigation has expanded to expenses that have nothing to do with the communications company founded by relatives of Jean-François Copé. The judges questioned in particular a line “presidential” in the party's 2012 budget, indicating 13,5 million euros of expenses incurred, while only three million euros were communicated in the campaign account. Trains, meeting rooms, leaflets, polls: the investigators traced new forgotten invoices, which appear in the accounts of the UMP but not in the campaign account.

The judges indicted thirteen former officials of the UMP, the campaign or Bygmalion. The investigation is open for forgery, breach of trust, fraud and illegal election campaign financing.

Source(s): Liberation.fr with Afp

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