“Justice will be done (…) the bad is behind me,” insists the 34-year-old woman, with her hair dyed blond and brown, who was called to speak at the end of the morning. Being there, “is revenge for me. I rebuilt myself, I had ups and downs, I understood real life,” continues in a confident voice the mother of a little boy for whom she “(fights).
“I created my real family, that one, it will always be there,” explains the woman who is today a waitress, after having inherited at the age of 17 more than 11 million euros from the Schlumpf fortune, an empire industrial company founded by the Fritz brothers – his grandfather – and Hans, collapsed in 1976.
Concealment of abuse of weakness
In front of her, Josiane S., 68 years old, and her daughters, Mathilde H., 33 years old, and Julia H., 40 years old, whom she accuses of having abused her weakness and of having ruined her between 2008 and 2017. Josiane responds for abuse of weakness, her daughters for concealment of abuse of weakness. Presumed innocent, they contested the alleged facts on Thursday morning.
Josiane, presented during the investigation as her “surrogate mother”, claims to have noticed nothing of Cléophée’s psychological weakness, even though it was attested by an expert opinion: she lost her mother at eleven years old and her grandmother, whom she loved it, a few years later. Cléophée also experienced anorexia nervosa and depression.
It was this grandmother, Arlette, widow of Fritz and custodian of the fortune, who had designated Cléophée as her sole heir.
Ample black dress, surgical mask on her face, supported by crutches, Josiane tries to minimize her relationship with Cléophée, maintaining that she was “not so” close to her, but rather, “friendly”, to her father , Patrick Herrmann. The latter maintained distant ties with Cléophée.
Faced with President Morgane Robitaillie who reviews her expenses and her opulent lifestyle, Josiane responds with confidence but struggles to convince.
The expensive fittings to the apartment in Colmar for her and her daughters, the purchase of which had been financed by an interest-free loan from Cléophée of several hundred thousand euros? Paid for by Patrick Herrmann, widower and too “happy to have a new family”. “I accepted the gifts” without “never paying anything”. The kitchen at 120,000 euros? “I wasn’t the one who wrote the check,” she retorts.
Taxi travel
Traveling in a taxi almost assigned to this woman in failing health, for example to go to a luxury store in Strasbourg? Partly “paid by social security, I gave the supplement”.
Mathilde and Julia, who notably benefited from an interest-free loan of 150,000 euros each for the apartment and numerous luxury gifts, assured that they never perceived Cléophée’s fragility. No more Julia than Mathilde, very close to Cléophée at school, but who says he lost sight of her at high school.
Julia was harsh with her mother, who had power of attorney over her accounts, accusing her of having “manipulated” them. “We were always manipulated by our parents”, especially during their divorce, “we were objects”, says the forty-year-old while her sister sobs behind her.
“My daughter Julia took advantage of luxury deals and now she is crushing me!”, annoys Josiane. It’s too much for the eldest who leaves the room crying. The requisitions and pleadings were expected Thursday afternoon.
