Until some time ago, Jacques Bouthier, 75, was known to be one of the 500 biggest fortunes in France. Today, the ex-CEO of Assu 2000 (renamed Vilavi) has been imprisoned since May 25, 2022: he is suspected of “trafficking in human beings” and “rape of a minor over 15″, “use of prostitution by a minor”, “sexual assault on a minor under the age of 15”, “possession of child pornography”, but above all an “attempted kidnapping” on a young woman of 22. She is the one who started this affair.
The one who brought down Jacques Bouthier
It is because she feels threatened that this young woman of 22 years pushes the door of the police station of the 19th arrondissement of Paris on March 15: the complaint she files is explosive. She says that she arrived from Morocco at the age of 14 in very precarious conditions, and that she met Jacques Bouthier at the age of 16, through one of her cousins. The multimillionaire then offers him paid sex. He puts her up in an apartment in Noisy-le-Sec, in Seine-Saint-Denis, and visits her on average once a week.
The young woman then declares having been raped between the ages of 16 and 22. Completely under his control, she even agrees to stop high school to be available, as he wishes, every afternoon from 3:00 p.m. Jacques Bouthier will also confirm it in police custody. But when she turned 21 last year, Jacques Bouthier reportedly felt she was too old and asked her to find him another young girl. During a psychological examination, she explains: “I just want him to stop, I don’t care if he goes to jail. I don’t want him to hurt innocent little girls.”
The one who was recruited to trap him
Before filing a complaint, this young woman tried to trap the businessman. She then brings a 14-year-old Romanian girl to her apartment, informed of the scheme: she then shoots a video of a little over a minute, in which we see Jacques Bouthier on a bed, naked, alongside the teenage girl he tells not to be afraid. If there is no sexual relationship in the images, the video remains very compromising for the CEO, which explains his indictment for “sexual assault”.
The 22-year-old young woman then tries to blackmail him, and demands a very large sum of money from him. But Jacques Bouthier refuses. He is then suspected of having recruited a team to recover the video and bury the case. The minors protection brigade also suspects him of having planned to kidnap the young woman, to send her back to Morocco.
The accomplices of Jacques Bouthier
In this team of criminals in the service of Jacques Bouthier, we find several of his relatives – including his wife – but also a former gendarme from the GIGN or an ex-boxer converted into private security. The latter will ask a police officer to try to find the young woman and recover the video. In all, six people are indicted, and most placed in pre-trial detention.
In a phone tap, Jacques Bouthier boasted of having many contacts in the police. Recently, a former divisional commissioner was also heard by the investigators, without any charge being brought against him. Solicited, neither Jacques Bouthier’s lawyer, Maître Laure Heinich, nor the plaintiff’s lawyer wished to comment. According to information from franceinfo, Jacques Bouthier did not recognize the facts while in police custody and mentioned a “trap” to make him sing.
The investigations are continuing. The investigators of the Parisian judicial police peel the past of the businessman, in search of possible other minor victims. A procedure is also underway in Tangier, Morocco, where a call center of the brokerage group Assu 2000 is located. Seven former employees filed a complaint against Jacques Bouthier and several of his collaborators for sexual harassment between 2018 and 2022. On July 17, two men, a Frenchman and a Moroccan, were indicted in Morocco: in all, eight people were indicted as part of this procedure for sexual harassment. Six of them were placed under arrest warrant and two others released; one of the main ones is on the run and wanted by the authorities.