The affair of the FN "campaign kits", the turnkey electoral material used by the candidates of the National Front (now National Rally) during the 2012 legislative elections, will know its legal epilogue on Wednesday with the decision of the court of call from Paris.
Three "legal persons": the RN, the micro-party Jeanne, the communication company Riwal and seven relatives of Marine Le Pen are tried on appeal for fraud at the expense of the State, abuse of corporate assets, breach of trust, concealment and bleaching.
The issue is whether the Court of Appeal will confirm or reverse the judgment of first instance which had been rather lenient for the former FN. The risk for the RN is to have to return more than 10 million euros to the State for a case dating back more than ten years.
At the heart of the file, "campaign kits" composed of leaflets, "personalized" posters, a website and even services to present accounts in good standing to the institution in charge of verifying the financing of political parties (CNCCFP).
These "kits" were sold for 16,650 euros to FN candidates by the Jeanne association, Marine Le Pen's micro-party, and provided by the communications company Riwal, headed by Frédéric Chatillon, a former president of the GUD (Groupe union defense , a far-right student organization).
For the prosecution, this system hid overvalued benefits, intended to deceive the State which reimburses the expenses of candidates exceeding 5% of the vote.
As in the first instance, the State claimed 11.6 million euros in damages from the RN and the defendants.
But at first instance, in June 2020, the court did not follow the prosecution's requisitions.
The FN had been acquitted of charges of fraud at the expense of the state. The party had been sentenced to a fine of 18,750 euros for only "concealment of abuse of corporate assets".
After this judgment, the RN had hailed "a decision that sounds like a victory".
Frédéric Chatillon had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, including ten months and a fine of 250,000 euros. Jean-François Jalkh, jurist of the National Front at the time, and Wallerand de Saint-Just, treasurer, both then members of the party's executive office, were also convicted.
The first to two years in prison, including six months, and a five-year ineligibility sentence. The second to a six-month suspended prison sentence. As for the Jeanne micro-party, it had been sentenced, as a legal person, to a fine of 300,000 euros, including 150,000 euros suspended.
Three other relatives of Frédéric Chatillon had been sentenced to suspended sentences ranging from one to two years in prison and, for two of them, his companion, Sighild Blanc, absent during the appeal trial, and the chartered accountant Nicolas Crochet, to respective fines of 100,000 euros and 40,000 euros. A last defendant, Axel Loustau, another former GUD, had been released.
On appeal, the public prosecutor's office requested a fine of 500,000 euros against the RN and several prison sentences and / or fines against executives or former executives of the RN or relatives of Marine Le Pen.
In particular, he requested a four-year prison sentence, including three years suspended, as well as a fine of 250,000 euros and a permanent ban on managing against Frédéric Chatillon, described as "keystone of the system" by the general counsel.
The prosecution demanded a fine of 200,000 euros against Riwal and a fine of 300,000 euros against Jeanne.
The defendants all disputed the charges against them, claiming to have acted legally.
03/13/2023 05:34:58 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
