For a long time, the position of first secretary of the Socialist Party eluded Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. This was due to two convictions – for a job of convenience with a manager of immigrant workers’ homes in 2000, then for a fictitious job at the Mutuelle nationale des étudiants de France (MNEF) in 2006 –, described as“very old story” by relatives with the Monde in 2012, when he tried his luck again. On Wednesday, September 4, the former socialist strategist was, this time, found guilty by the 32e chamber of the Paris Criminal Court for “misappropriation of mandate expenses” for acts committed between 2015 and 2017, when he was a member of parliament for Paris.
The courts established that, between 2015 and 2017, he had used for personal purposes more than 136,000 euros from his parliamentary mandate expenses, including more than 30,000 euros in rent for his home, more than 25,000 euros in contributions to the Socialist Party, more than 10,000 euros in leisure travel – including a trip with his wife to Corsica and a family trip to Prague – and more than 18,000 euros in damages and interest payments due after one of his previous convictions.
The damage had however been reduced to 114,057 euros, the elected official having paid himself during this same period more than 22,000 euros from his personal account to the account dedicated to his mandate expenses.
Five years of ineligibility
“A multitude of operations registered over time, (…) in order to ensure one’s standard of living”estimated the financial prosecutor Hedy Djilali during the hearing held at the end of June, specifying that the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF) was only interested in expenses incurred after March 5, 2015, the date on which the rules for using mandate expenses were detailed in an “information letter” sent to deputies by the president of the National Assembly.
In accordance with the PNF’s requisitions, the 73-year-old former elected official was sentenced to eight months of suspended imprisonment, five years of ineligibility and a fine of 60,000 euros. He will also have to continue to reimburse the disputed sums, i.e. another 27,000 euros of the 114,000 euros of damages. Contacted after the hearing, Mr. Cambadélis’ lawyer, Me Jean-Etienne Giamarchi, has announced that his client will appeal, because he “did not receive a fair trial”.
The alert had been launched by the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life in 2018. At the end of the control of the declaration of assets of the outgoing deputies, the institution had reported to the justice system fifteen parliamentarians whom it suspected of misuse of compensation. Mr. Cambadelis had admitted the facts in June 2022, during an appearance on prior admission of guilt, the French version of the American plea bargain. But the sentence negotiated between the PNF and the former socialist strategist – six months in prison and one year of suspended ineligibility – had been refused by the approving judge, who had considered that it was not adapted to the “seriousness of the facts (…) committed by an elected official of the Republic”.
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