JUSTICE – Tickets in the PSG VIP area in exchange for interventions with a view to favourable decisions by the administration? The former Macronist vice-president of the Assembly Hugues Renson was indicted this Thursday, September 5 in Paris in a case of influence peddling around the capital’s football club.
Did Hugues Renson help Neymar’s transfer to PSG? Justice investigates the Macronist
Hugues Renson, 46, a member of parliament for Paris from 2017 to 2022, and currently secretary general of EDF Hydro according to his personal bio, was questioned all day Thursday by a Parisian financial investigating judge, who also placed him under judicial supervision, according to a source close to the case to AFP.
“Hugues Renson contests this. He did not commit any illegal act in the course of his duties.”his lawyer Mario Stasi told AFP. According to the elements of the investigation that AFP has seen, Hugues Renson is accused of having, as an elected official, obtained tickets for club matches, benefits for his family or requested a job at PSG.
“If you are looking for a spokesperson, I will give up my mandate tomorrow to come and work with you.”for example, Hugues Renson wrote to Jean-Martial Ribes, the club’s communications director, in 2020, reports The World. At that time, Hugues Renson was vice-president of the National Assembly.
Favorable decisions for the club owned by Qatar
In return, the person who created an informal group of MPs who were friends of PSG would be suspected of having used his “actual or supposed influence” to obtain for the club owned by Qatar “favorable decisions of a public authority or administration”concerning a gym for a judo subsidiary of PSG, the club’s training center, a visa for staff, etc.
In this multi-layered investigation opened in the summer of 2021, several protagonists, former police officers, club personalities or lobbyists, are suspected of having provided mutual services in exchange for advantages, sometimes coming from PSG, other times benefiting the club.
Since September 2022, the investigating magistrate has indicted Jean-Martial Ribes, Malik Naït-Liman, former supporter representative of the club and ex-police officer of the intelligence services, police officers and the Franco-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane.
The name of Hugues Renson, as well as that of a former advisor (2012-2019) to the sports unit of the Élysée, Charlotte Casasoprana, appeared in this investigation more recently, thanks to the exploitation of Jean-Martial Ribes’ telephone. They had been heard in a free hearing in May.
Castaner and Darmanin cited in the investigation
According to telephone conversations seen by AFP, Hugues Renson contacted Interior Ministers Christophe Castaner, in office between 2018 and 2020, and Gérald Darmanin (2020-2024), following requests from Jean-Martial Ribes.
Heard as a witness in May, one of Hugues Renson’s former collaborators in the Assembly between 2017 and 2020 estimated that “about twenty” the number of places offered by the PSG to the deputy within the « Carré »the very chic and prestigious space for the club’s approximately 200 distinguished guests.
Hugues Renson’s name also appears in the investigation into suspicions of tax favors granted to the Parisian club during the transfer of Brazilian striker Neymar in 2017, which has been handled since the beginning of 2024 in a separate procedure.
The justice system is wondering whether the former vice-president of the National Assembly tried to obtain tax advantages for PSG from the government during the transfer of the superstar to the capital for 222 million euros (the most expensive in history). According to a source close to the case, Hugues Renson was not questioned on Thursday on this aspect of the investigation.
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