Criminal Court of Tours
On several occasions, the exchanges are similar to a dialogue of the deaf, Tuesday May 6, 2025, in the vast hearing of the Judicial Court of Tours (Indre-et-Loire). Dressed in dark costumes, standing in front of the magistrates, the three defendants remain camped on their position, refusing to follow the logic of President Christophe Gérot.
They contest having participated in the diversion of nearly € 337,000 via the apprenticeship tax for the benefit of the Union Tours Basket Métropole (UTBM), now known as the Basket Métropole (TBM), between 2016 and 2021.
A report of the auditor
Bruno de l’Espinay, president of the UTBM, is being prosecuted for paying the apprenticeship tax to the OGEC Notre-Dame-de-la-Riche and the IMT Industries training group, as president of Artus France, on the condition that the majority of funds be donated to his basketball club. “The money comes out of Artus’s pocket to return to the pocket of Bruno de l’Espinay”summarizes the public prosecutor, Catherine Sorita-Minard.
A simple “Sponsorship partnership”, Report Romain Régard, director of TBM, and Benoît Visse, ex-director of OGEC. However, the statutory auditor responsible for establishing the club’s accounting assessment in August 2020, concluded that suspicious dysfunctions issues a report to the prosecution.
The latter decides to initiate prosecution against the directors of the OGEC and the IMT Industries (1) for breach of confidence, as well as the two leaders of the club for complicity in breach of trust, false writing and concealment of good.
Up to thirty-six months of suspended
“I will not pay a tax to a school that does not want to do a sponsorship contract with the club, Bruno of the Spinay is justified. I never had the impression of being illegal or irregularity. For me, they were partners. »» The survey is based on falsified invoices, or at best “Blur”of which Romain Régnard was responsible “To justify these fund movements”according to the public prosecutor.
“No service has ever been billed, denounce me François-Antoine Cros, OGEC Council and IMT Industries, which were formed civil parties. Students never benefited from these investments. »»
-The public prosecutor, Catherine Sorita-Minard, requires between sixteen and thirty-six months of single and 50,000 € fine. The heaviest sentences concern Bruno de l’Espinay, with the confiscation of the sum € 252,000. “You will appreciate the amount of the penalty against the UTBM”concludes the magistrate.
According to the defense, the investigation was carried out “Completely dependent” and is not “Neither done nor to do”. It highlights the lack of accounting investigation while “The sums are verifiable, identifiable, and traceable”. Me Antoine Brillatz, Brown advice of the Spinay, puts in exerting the personal investment of his client: “He injected 1.2 million euros, from his own funds, to finance the club. He never made the slightest note of costs. Never affected the slightest mileage allowance. »»
The decision was deliberated on July 3, 2025.
(1) The director of IMT Industries recognized his guilt: he was sentenced to six months of single.
Learning and Sport, a practice that already questioned in Touraine
Learning and sport, the two spheres like to “marry”. If the UTBM-Lycée Notre-Dame-de-la-Riche affair judged by the Correctional Court of Tours has its own springs; It comes to illustrate once again that sports clubs, especially those who want to reach out to the high level, now tend to turn to the learning mechanisms and the state subsidies that go with it.
In a survey published on our site, then in our columns in January 2024, the new Republic had thus demonstrated that several football clubs in the Center-Val de Loire region were based on the offers of a training institute (Touraine Sport Training) in order to offer contracts (of learning, therefore) to their players.
On paper, it may seem to be a great idea. But the number of cases (in this case a dozen administrative/players employees in the same club …) and the testimonies united (including that of an “apprentice” … also on permanent contracts in another company), suggested that many of these apprenticeship contracts would only serve the appearance of regularity to benefit from state aid.
“Learning is the new Eldorado of clubs to get to shoot it,” even dropped a club leader. A way to replace the black funds of yesteryear or “black contracts” … benefiting from public subsidies.
