The supposed damage might reach three million euros, spread over twenty years. An investigation has been opened because of a suspicion of fictitious use at the “Canard enchaîné”, a satirical and investigative weekly, report France Inter et The world. The information was confirmed to Parisian.
Christophe Nobili, journalist for this media, brought to light the potential affair. While the Duck’s workforce is quite modest with regarding twenty employees, he found that a person who is unknown to him had also been part of it for regarding twenty years. It is the companion of a historical designer of the newspaper, André Escaro, employed since 1959 and now 94 years old. The latter was still present in the pages of the palmipede in the spring and left the board of directors at the beginning of the summer.
A “terrible dilemma”
At the beginning of May, Christophe Nobili filed a complaint with the status of whistleblower. An investigation was opened for “abuse of corporate assets” and “concealment of abuse of corporate assets”. It is entrusted to the financial brigade of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
A business specialist, Nobili worked in particular on the François Fillon case, the Republican candidate for the 2017 presidential election, caught up by a fictitious job file in which he was sentenced from. The journalist also investigated the interests of the Bolloré group in Africa or those of the Bouygues group.
His lawyer explains to Le Monde that risking harm to his business by revealing the facts constituted a “terrible dilemma”. But he claims to have felt that keeping quiet would have been more difficult. “The complaint is not once morest the newspaper, but once morest a system that was set up by two or three people, and to which others may have turned a blind eye.”
Nicolas Brimo, director of publication of the “Chained Duck”, told AFP that he had not been “heard or summoned. We are not aware of what exactly is in the complaint; we don’t even know (at) exact date “. “There was a meeting between lawyers four months ago and since then we have never heard of it. Explanations were given. I understand that these explanations did not satisfy, that’s why he filed a complaint, ”he said once more. “If there are explanations to be given, we will of course give them to the police and to our readers. »
