The mayor of Barcarès, indicted for “corruption” and “favoritism”, placed in pre-trial detention

Alain Ferrand is indicted by the courts as part of a judicial investigation concerning the management of public contracts relating to the municipality’s Christmas villages between 2012 and 2024.

The mayor of the commune of Le Barcarès, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Alain Ferrand, was indicted on Tuesday for “corruption by a public elected official”, “favoritism”, “illegal taking of interests”, “participation in an association of criminals”, “money laundering” and “undeclared transfer of sums from abroad”, reported Wednesday May 1 the Marseille prosecutor’s office. The elected official, placed in pre-trial detention, denies all the facts with which he is accused.

Alain Ferrand is indicted as part of a judicial investigation concerning the management of public contracts relating to the town’s Christmas villages between 2012 and 2024. He was arrested on Monday when he got off the plane, while he returned from a two-week business trip to Congo-Brazzaville.

A “relentlessness” according to his lawyer

Another person was indicted in this case: Michel Astaing, CEO of the K Invest group, controlling the company SAS Nordika. He is indicted for “corruption of a public elected official”, “concealment of favoritism” and “concealment of illegal taking of interest”. He was placed under judicial supervision. Two other people were released after their custody.

According to the mayor’s lawyer, Jean-Robert Phung, it is a matter of“a relentlessness”. He denounces “a 48-hour interrogation in one-way police custody” and announces to appeal. The lawyer recalls that “for 20 years” his client “was the subject of around twenty or thirty custody orders, five or six indictments, five or six referrals to the criminal court” and “all these procedures ended with dismissals, acquittals and dismissals.”

Already convicted of misuse of corporate property

Alain Ferrand, 64, mayor of Barcarès for the first time in 1995, is also being prosecuted in another case linked to the organization of the town’s Christmas village. Initially scheduled for March 6, his trial was postponed until June 19, 2025. In this case, also investigated by the Marseille JIRS, Alain Ferrand is suspected of several irregularities in the organization of the Christmas market during the winter of 2018. -2019.

The investigation, carried out by the gendarmes of the Montpellier research section, was triggered following a report from Anticor. The anti-corruption association believes it has detected “serious dysfunctions” in the allocation of concessions to traders who operate the market. If certain charges initially targeted by the investigation were dropped, Alain Ferrand is being prosecuted for “illegal taking of interest by a public elected official” and “misappropriation by a person holding public authority”. Alain Ferrand has also already been convicted several times by the courts, notably for misuse of corporate assets in 1999, or even for tax fraud in 2001.