2023-08-02 19:51:23
First shock in France following the revelation of a corruption scandal which is worth an indictment to the co-founder of Altice in Portugal: a leader of the telecommunications group, parent company of SFR, was suspended from her duties this Wednesday within the framework of an internal investigation.
During a social and economic committee (CSE), Arthur Dreyfuss, CEO of Altice France, reported having suspended the executive director of content, acquisitions and partnerships of the group, Tatiana Agova-Bregou, implicated in listening to the Portuguese justice, union sources told AFP.
“No wealth predation system”
According to Portuguese media, she would have benefited from luxurious gifts and a property in the Paris region from Armando Pereira, the businessman at the heart of the scandal which led the investigators to carry out a series of searches. , notably at Altice’s headquarters in Lisbon.
This one founded Altice with the French billionaire Patrick Drahi and was still for one year the adviser of the CEO and the executive committee of Altice France. He is notably accused of having set up a network of dubious suppliers, at the center of the group’s purchasing policy, and through which he would have taken large sums.
“The UNSa expects the internal investigation to ensure that there is no system of predation of wealth within the group”, declared the majority union within the group during the CSE .
Corruption and money laundering
The social actors unanimously voted for a resolution demanding “the greatest transparency on the audits which will be carried out in the Altice France group” and “the opening of a discussion to agree on the methods of participation of the elected representatives and their expert in investigations and audits”.
Since July 13 and the revelation of a search at the headquarters of Altice Portugal, the case splashes the whole group. Several leaders have been suspended, including the CEO of Altice USA, Alexandre Fonseca, appointed last March and previously at the head of the Portuguese subsidiary. Other measures might be taken in France, “in the coming days or weeks”, declared Arthur Dreyfuss during the CSE, without it being, according to him, a “witch hunt”.
Pursued with four other people and under house arrest, Armando Pereira is suspected in this case of 11 corruption and money laundering offenses. He refuted, through his lawyer, the suspicions hanging over him. But many questions arise regarding the governance of Altice and the reasons that might explain how such practices might persist unnoticed.
” A new page “
Rarely, Patrick Drahi plans to speak to investors and creditors on August 7 and 8, on the occasion of the half-year results of Altice France and Altice International. The leaders of the group claim for the moment to have discovered these practices on July 13. “We are never betrayed except by our own”, declared Arthur Dreyfuss on Wednesday, eager to open “a new page”.
But concern and bitterness dominate among employees, who had fought once morest a major social plan in 2021, while the group is faced with a heavy debt which worries the markets at a time when interest rates are rising.
“If the employees have been wronged, they will have to be paid a counterpart,” Abdelkader Choukraine, central union representative of the UNSa, told AFP. “On a day-to-day basis, expenses are the most watched thing in the group. It is of such magnitude, so disproportionate to the controls that we undergo daily, that there has necessarily been a problem in terms of control and governance of the company, “added Olivier Lelong, delegate CFDT trade union.
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