Former Secretary of State Thierry Mandon sentenced to 12 months in prison

The former socialist minister was found guilty of “scams”, “attempted misappropriation of public property by a person holding public authority”, “forgery and use of forged documents” and “abuse of corporate property”.

Former Socialist Secretary of State Thierry Mandon was sentenced, Friday, November 15, to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 22,000 euros for fraud linked to his former functions as general director of the Cité du design de Saint -Etienne. He was found guilty by the Saint-Etienne criminal court of “scams”, “attempted misappropriation of public property by a person holding public authority”, “forgery and use of forged documents” and “abuse of social goods”.

The former director of the Cité du design of Saint-Etienne (2018 to 2022) is also sentenced to five years of ineligibility as well as a permanent ban from chairing or directing a public establishment, specified the president of the court, adding that “the whole thing is immediately enforceable”. He will therefore have to resign from his position as secretary general of the National Commerce Council, which he has held since June 2023, his lawyer André Buffard told AFP. The decision to appeal “is under consideration”he added.

Thierry Mandon admitted to having produced false invoices to finance, for nearly 15,000 euros, a custom staircase at his Parisian home and to have Cité Services reimburse 43 Paris-Saint-Etienne TGV trips previously paid for by the Cité du design , as well as a trip to China which ultimately did not take place due to Covid-19. The defense had pleaded guilty, while emphasizing that all of the embezzled sums had been reimbursed by their client before the report made in November 2022 by the president of the Cité du design, Marc Chassaubéné, also deputy for culture of Saint-Etienne .