The investigative book caused a stir in mid-September. In “Les Ogres”, the journalist Victor Castanet described the “voracity” of certain groups of private crèches and in particular the People & Baby group.
Two months later, an investigation was opened against the latter group, after a complaint from Anticor. According to the prosecution, the complaint from the anti-corruption association denounces “acts of fraud to the detriment of a public person or an organization responsible for a public service mission, embezzlement of public funds, misuse of property social, breach of trust, complicity in tax fraud, potentially attributable to People & Baby crèches”.
The investigation was entrusted to the direction of the judicial police on November 14, according to the same source. “Faced with the inertia of the public authorities, it seemed necessary to us to act,” said Paul Cassia, president of Anticor, during a press conference on November 12 announcing the filing of the complaint.
“The starting point of this affair is the book by Victor Castanet on the management of a company which manages private crèches,” he continued. The association's lawyer, Me Vincent Brengarth, detailed the different qualifications targeted by the complaint falling “in the particular context of these crèches which benefit […] of public aid from the State” and the “deficiency in the number of places in crèche”.
More than two million euros embezzled?
According to him, the amount of money embezzled would be “at least 2.1 million euros, a figure which only concerns partial unemployment aid fraud”.
Currently, France has 460,000 collective childcare places, of which 50% are in public crèches, 27% in private crèches (Les Petits Chaperons Rouges, Babilou, La Maison Bleue, People & Baby, etc.) and 23%. associative crèches.
In mid-September, People & Baby indicated that “the practices described in the book” by Victor Castanet “are totally out of step with the values we hold today”. The group's new management claimed to have “begun a profound transformation” with a new president and promised to correct “without delay” any “dysfunction that could be identified”. “Independent audits” will be put in place and “we are committed to transparently reporting on the actions implemented and their monitoring,” added People & Baby.
