Eric Piolle would have asked one of his closest advisors, after having increased it, to transfer part of his salary to his former first deputy Élisa Martin. The former employee would have paid him a total of 16,800 euros. The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
An explosive financial affair at Grenoble town hall. Mayor Eric Piolle would have asked one of his closest advisors to transfer part of his salary to the former first deputy Élisa Martin, reveals The chained Duck this Wednesday, June 5.
This special advisor to the councilor would have received, in January 2016, an increase increasing his monthly salary from 3,000 to 3,600 euros net per month. In return, the environmentalist mayor Eric Piolle would have asked him to “(return) 400 euros in cash every month to Elisa Martin”writes the weekly.
The Grenoble public prosecutor, Eric Vaillant, announced this Wednesday that an investigation targeting the three protagonists had been opened for “concussion” and “concealment of this crime”.
It is, for a person holding public authority or charged with a public service mission, “to receive, demand or order to collect (…) a sum which he knows is not due, or exceeds what is due”, according to the Penal Code. This offense is punishable by a sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 euros.
Former first deputy mayor of Grenoble, now LFI deputy for Isère, Élisa Martin abandoned her mandate as regional councilor when she was elected to the City in 2014. One of Eric’s campaign commitments Piolle specified that “the accumulation of mandates (would be) strictly limited, in particular excluding the accumulation between two executives” and that the compensation of elected officials would be reduced.
This measure was voted on at the first municipal council of the new majority, including a 19% reduction in the compensation of deputy mayors. The special advisor at the town hall would have paid a total of 16,800 euros in cash, not declared to the tax authorities, to Élisa Martin, according to The chained Duck.
The former employee, who left his position in the summer of 2022 on bad terms with the municipality – a conciliation procedure is still underway, hired a lawyer and had the conversations on encrypted messaging certified by a bailiff. He did not wish to respond to our interview requests.
Asked by France 3 Alpes, Élisa Martin did not wish to speak. Grenoble town hall had not responded at the time of publication of this article.
