The story is complicated. Since 1999, the L’univers des Langues site, published by the Festival des Langues company, has offered foreign language courses. In 2015, it took advantage of the appearance of the professional training account to offer almost all of its offers on the government platform. The latter is managed by the deposit and consignment fund. It must control the quality of organizations and training, ensure the security of transactions, prevent the risk of fraud and pay the training organizations.
It is for this reason that, on March 16, 2021, the Caisse des Dépôts informed Festival des Langues of the opening of a control period. Then dereference the organization from the CPF platform. “We were not the only ones concerned and we were not given reasons, despite requests from my lawyer”, stammers Touradj Bakhtiar, the manager of the organization. His hypothesis? The CPF is said to be too successful and, overwhelmed, the deposit fund would have delisted and then suspended payments to organizations which have a large turnover.
First Fight: Being Referenced Again
In eight months, the company was taken off the platform, put back on the platform and taken off once more. “More problematic, the deposit fund stopped paying us”, Touradj Bakhtiar despairs. He therefore questions the CPF agents, who tell him that these are simple delays. As the situation persists, he contacts them once more. He was finally told that the suspension of payments might be a sanction.
“However, on this date, no such measure was notified to my client”underlines Me Anaïs Ayache, the lawyer for Festival des Langues. “The reason given is unclear and the control procedure turns out to be opaque”, adds Touradj Bakhtiar. While continuing to give its courses, the company is giving notice to the Caisse des Dépôts to pay it on December 1, 2021. “No response was given to this letter, nor to the multiple reminders that followed”notes Me Ayache.
Second fight: getting paid once more
Faced with this silence, Touradj Bakhtiar and his counsel brought several actions before the Nice administrative court. They request in particular the cancellation of the “probable” sanction measure and request the judge of summary freedoms, who can make a decision within 48 hours, for the resumption of payments. In the absence of an administrative decision on this date, the court rejects the request. As for the judge, he considers that the situation does not present an emergency. On December 28, the Caisse des Dépôts finally produced a sanction decision which provides for six months of delisting until June 29, 2022 and the non-payment of several training courses. “It was only following multiple appeals that we obtained an administrative decision that might be contested”, comments Me Ayache. Obviously, the organization goes to court once more to request the cancellation of the sanction. The request for interim relief was rejected but the proceedings on the merits are still pending before the administrative court of Nice.
While this legal battle continues, the Caisse des Dépôts announces that it is carrying out a second audit of the company on April 11, 2022.
Liquidation in January and indictment
At the end of June, once the delisting period is over, Festival des Langues requests the Caisse des Dépôts to appear once more on the CPF platform. But his two letters remain a dead letter. A new request was therefore filed on July 18, in order to obtain a response. The day before the hearing, on August 4, the institution finally wrote to the company refusing to comply. Deprived of visibility and payments, the company was liquidated on January 17, 2023. “The reason for the lack of urgency to reject our appeal therefore turned out to be unfounded. Attacking the deposit fund is tedious. We were confronted with the absence of real decision-making contacts and refusals to respond both oral and written. They forced us to take legal action to get answerssighs Me Ayache. In my opinion, my client was the subject of real harassment. Since the start of this case, he has undergone an inspection by the Labor Inspectorate, the Dreets(1), a personal and company tax audit and a criminal complaint.”
“Seizures also took place on my personal bank account and on those of the companies that I manage or for which I am associated. However, at the time of these seizures, I was not indicted and had not even been auditioned”complete, perplexed, Touradj Bakhtiar.
In total, 204,117 euros would have been taken. When requested, the investigating chamber this time ordered the cancellation of the seizures. But, for the moment, the amount has not yet been recovered. At the same time, searches were carried out at the home of Touradj Bakhtiar and within his six companies. “However, nothing was taken and the police saw that I was paying Urssaf”he indicates.
At the beginning of June, a new search was carried out at Touradj Bakhtiar’s home, before he was taken into police custody. He was then transferred to the Grasse court where he was indicted under judicial supervision.
1. Regional Directorate of the Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity.
Incriminating testimony?
According to the first elements brought to our attention, Festival des Langues would have had difficulty justifying certain training actions. According to the company, trainers refused to provide documents without being paid. However, the company might no longer operate, and therefore might not pay its employees.
Students also reportedly testified that they did not receive the hours of training for which they paid. “Interns are complaining regarding aggressive canvassing by an employee who stopped working for the company since the end of 2020. These testimonies are minimal and their veracity has not been demonstrated to date,” defends Me Ayache.
However, Touradj Bakhtiar recognizes it: there are indeed ways to defraud the professional training account. “Some organizations sell e-learning links purchased for between 50 euros and 100 euros to a learner who will pay 5,000 via their CPF,” he confirms.
Requested several times, the deposit and consignment office did not come back to us.
