indicted, former Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud says she has “nothing to reproach herself for”

Muriel Pénicaud is suspected of complicity in favoritism as part of the investigation into a large evening organized in 2016 in Las Vegas at the request of Emmanuel Macron.

“My integrity is total, I am serene, I have a clear conscience.” The former Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud, assured Saturday December 23 that she did not “nothing to [s]e to reproach” in a message sent to AFP. This follows the revelation by The world of his indictment in October, for complicity in favoritism in the investigation into a large evening organized in 2016 in Las Vegas at the request of Emmanuel Macron. In this case, Muriel Pénicaud is indicted as the former general director of the public organization promoting the French economy abroad, Business France, dependent on Bercy.

Muriel Pénicaud, initially heard as an assisted witness

Then Minister of the Economy, Emmanuel Macron visited the city of Nevada in January 2016 to meet hundreds of French entrepreneurs, at the time of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the high mass of technological innovation. To urgently mount this operation, costing around 300,000 euros, under pressure from the minister’s office, Business France had entrusted it entirely to the Havas Paris agency, without resorting to the competitive bidding provided for by the code. public contracts for such sums.

A critical report from the General Inspectorate of Finance transmitted by Bercy which led the Paris prosecutor’s office to open the investigation in March 2017, then entrusted to three investigating magistrates. The judges notified the end of the investigations in 2019, but various procedural appeals have taken place since then.

“Since the start of this affair, I have been exonerated by an audit report, the General Inspectorate of Finance, three investigating judges, the prosecutor, the Paris Court of Appeal, the Court of accounts”affirms Muriel Pénicaud, initially placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness. “Eight years later, new investigating judges seem to have a different opinion. I regret it. We will roll up our sleeves and work to convince them that they are wrong”she added.