Eric Piolle, mayor of Grenoble, accused of illicit payment to an elected official, the prosecution opens an investigation

According to the “Chained Duck”, the elected official would have increased the salary of a collaborator so that he would pay part of it to his ex-deputy Elisa Martin, now an LFI deputy.

An investigation was opened on Wednesday June 5 against Eric Piolle, the environmentalist mayor of Grenoble (Isère), following an article in Chained duck who accuses him of having organized a budgetary sleight of hand to unduly pay 16,800 euros to his former first assistant, announced the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office.

The investigation for “concussion” – an offense punishable by 5 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros – and “concealment of this offense” targets Mayor Eric Piolle, his former deputy Elisa Martin, now an LFI deputy, and an intermediary, according to prosecutor Eric Vaillant. Asked by AFP, neither the Grenoble town hall nor the MP reacted immediately.

The satirical newspaper, in its Wednesday edition, claims that a former collaborator of Eric Piolle benefited from a salary increase of 600 euros in December 2016 but was asked to give 400 euros back to Elisa Martin for the help make ends meet. According to the newspaper, this “combined” aimed to compensate for the end of her mandate as regional councilor and the reduction of a quarter in the compensation of municipal elected officials, under the rules set by the municipality. In total, she would have received 16,800 euros in cash, not declared to the tax authorities. These payments would have ended when she was elected MP in the spring of 2022.

According to The chained Duckthe bank statements of the former collaborator, who left the town hall in the summer of 2022, show that he “methodically” withdrawn 400 euros in cash each month. He also allegedly had a bailiff attest to conversations carried out via encrypted messaging.

“If the facts are proven, they are extremely serious,” reacted on Former mayor Alain Carignon, himself convicted of corruption, also denounced facts “exceptionally serious” who, according to him, “definitively break the confidence of Grenoblois”.