Toulouse: tax officials suspected of being compromised, the file sent back to the prosecution
The Toulouse Criminal Court followed the defense of public finance officers prosecuted for influence peddling on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. The case was referred to the prosecution for the second time.
Repeat repeat. “The court considers that following the decision rendered on March 5, the prosecution could not seize the court directly. The citations are therefore null and the file sent back to the prosecution … “President Caroline Froehlicher and her assessors followed the defense lawyers on Tuesday morning before the Toulouse Criminal Court.
The case examined involved the supposed relationship between two public finance officers, in particular in charge of tax audits and two company managers. The file decidedly cumbersome the departure to the floor. For an opening of information? Likely since the judges of the seat reproach the prosecution for not having done in the spring. Unless the prosecution decides to cancel the proceedings, which is still possible.
Facing the court, Me Laurent Boguet this morning renewed his requests for the opening of a judicial information “in the face of a complex file” and launched by the financial division of the territorial directorate of the judicial police “is both incomplete and oriented », Reproaches the lawyer of Marc Menvielle, former deputy director of public finances of Haute-Garonne.
Pursued with his wife “which one wonders what one blames him”, recalls Me Thierry Carrère, this person in charge now retired disputes the alleged offenses. According to the quote, he gave the benefit of confidential information from a former chartered accountant and one of the managers of the restaurant “La compagnie française”. His wife would have participated in these exchanges of information with the restaurateur whose couple do not dispute having maintained friendly relations.
A house of cards?
Beyond this request, the defense also pleaded substantive nullities, on the seizure of exchanges by electronic messages between the defendants “in a legal framework which does not allow it”, insists the President of the Bar Carrère. Nullity taken up by Me Cedrik Brean, who assists Philippe Lacassagne and Me Maud Sobel, in defense of Guy Lahournere who are also wondering “about what we are accused of”. “We are talking about the exchange of confidential information. Which ones? There is no precise trace ”, annoys Me Sobel, whose client has been blocked in France since 2019“ while residing in China ”. The court, which declared its referral void, did not rule on these questions.
Faced with these offensives, the representative of the prosecution showed measured enthusiasm to reject the defense requests. “The court must decide this question of the referral”, notes the prosecutor Sylvain Cordesse, anxious to avoid that “this file is built on sand”. In defense, Me Carrère has just come to ironize on the efforts of the prosecution to defend “a house of cards which we are trying to avoid going before an examining magistrate to prevent it from collapsing …”