deux anciens dirigeants du Crédit municipal renvoyés en correctionnelle
Jean-Christophe Guérin is accused of having attributed…
Jean-Christophe Guérin is accused of having awarded, without competition, a security contract to a Gennevilliers company for 58,000 euros in order to keep so-called “high value” objects, including pieces related to the Napoleonic period pledged by jet-setter and collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon and revealed at 1.8 million euros.
No competition
Christophe Leuret will also answer for an irregular awarding of markets but this time to two auctioneers for auctions. Out of 11 lots that expired in 2017 corresponding to the cities where Crédit municipal de Bordeaux was present, two would have been awarded without a call for competition or without respecting the obligation to choose an auctioneer present at the location.
The investigation would not have detected any profits derived from the offenses by their alleged perpetrators. The Municipal Credit would have justified its choice in particular by difficulties in recruiting an auctioneer accepting the specifications linked to “high-value pawnbrokers”.
“There is a gulf between what was announced and the judicial reality of this case. Assuming the proven facts, they are disproportionate to what hit the headlines, “limited himself to indicating Mand Jean Gonthier, Jean-Christophe Guérin’s lawyer. Mand Philippe Sol, Christophe Leuret’s lawyer, refused to comment.
“There is a gulf between what has come to light and the judicial reality of this case”
The affair of the Crédit municipal de Bordeaux had in particular been the subject of a vitriolic report by the Regional Chamber of Accounts of New Aquitaine. The Chamber pointed to the ambitious and erratic management of the Bordeaux pawnshop in the second half of the 2010s to the complete indifference of elected municipal officials who were supposed to watch over the grain.
In 2016, the “bank for the poor”, in order to boost its activity and attract a more affluent clientele, had notably developed “high-value pledge loans” and heritage loans backed by real estate or Sacem copyrights ( Chantal Goya and her husband as well as the beneficiaries of Michel Delpech have notably subscribed). It is in this context that the collector of Napoleonic objects Pierre-Jean Chalençon found himself a client of the Crédit municipal de Bordeaux.