Claude Guéant acquitted by the Versailles Court of Appeal in the campaign accounts affair during the 2012 legislative elections

Former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant was acquitted, Wednesday October 2, by the Versailles Court of Appeal in a case in which he was accused of knowingly undermining his campaign accounts when he was a candidate for the deputation in Hauts-de-Seine in 2012.

Mr. Guéant, 79, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, in the form of home detention under electronic surveillance, and twelve months suspended on probation as well as a fine of 30,000 euros. .

“I am delighted that justice has upheld Claude Guéant’s defense in this case which dates back twelve years”reacted to Agence France-Presse M^e Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, Claude Guéant’s lawyer. “He never stopped saying that he had always acted in accordance with the law, which has finally been forcefully recognized by the Versailles Court of Appeal”added the former minister’s counsel, present Wednesday at the court of appeal.

A fine of 30,000 euros

The former minister was also sentenced to a ban on practicing any commercial or industrial profession for a period of five years. He also had to pay 30,529 euros “in respect of the undue reimbursement of his campaign expenses” to the judicial agent of the State, civil party.

Former secretary general of the presidency (2007-2011), then minister of the interior (2011-2012) under Nicolas Sarkozy, Claude Guéant was in 2012 a candidate for deputy in Hauts-de-Seine. The prosecution accused him of having intentionally reduced his campaign accounts and thus obtained a reimbursement of more than 30,000 euros by not declaring a leaflet letter distributed by the town hall of Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine).

This four-page electoral letter, in which the Les Républicains mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt, Pierre-Christophe Baguet, announced his support for Claude Guéant to succeed him in the National Assembly, was at the heart of the matter. Pierre-Christophe Baguet had attached his declaration of candidacy. Also accused in this case and sentenced at first instance to eight months in prison with a simple suspended sentence, Mr. Baguet was acquitted by the court of appeal.

A printing house manager, convicted in 2022 for illicit financing, and two former town hall employees also benefited from an acquittal. The requests for compensation from the State judicial agent, civil party in the case, were also rejected.

Mr. Guéant was convicted on appeal in January 2017 for complicity in embezzlement of public funds and receiving stolen property in another case: that of cash bonuses from the Ministry of the Interior. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, including one year suspended on probation, and a fine of 75,000 euros. Incarcerated on December 13, 2021, he was granted conditional release and left the Santé prison, in Paris, on February 9, 2022.