a report for “embezzlement of public funds” against one of the leaders of the sector

It all started with a discussion on the price of restaurant tickets at the end of last year. The social and economic committee (CSE) of Cosem wants to renegotiate it upwards: it has been stuck at seven euros for years. “We can’t even afford a sandwich + dessert formula with that”, laments an employee. But the general manager, Daniel Dimermanas, flatly refuses. The group, he argues in front of the staff representatives, is facing “significant financial worries”. It is also impossible to grant a slight increase to the 1,400 employees, to partially offset inflation. “It tipped us off, says an inside source, “Our health centers are constantly under construction. We spend crazy sums of money to beautify them, she continues, but at the same time, we are told that there is no money for employees!”

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The CSE therefore asks to consult the annual accounts, as the labor code allows. And there, amazement. “In the 2021 accounts, 95,000 euros in expense reports are charged to Isabelle Dimermanas, the director’s wife”is surprised Muriel Saint-Omer, CGT Private Health union representative and member of the CSE. “In detail, 328 euros were spent at Guerlain, 625 euros for caviar, 995 euros at Printemps, 159 euros at Grande Récré…” The CSE also wonders about an invoice for “1,397 euros at the Negresco” (a Nice palace, Ed) and on these “14,638 euros for restaurants”. “I find this particularly shocking, takes offense Muriel Saint-Omer. How are all these expenses related to any work at Cosem?”

The representatives of the CSE mentioned these expense reports in a report sent to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) at the beginning of the week. They list a whole list of “alleged financial malfeasance” may come under a “embezzlement of public funds”of “illegal taking of interests” And “breach of trust”according to lawyer Jérôme Karsenti, who assists Cosem whistleblowers. “The members of the CSE have highlighted the monopolization, by a family, of public funds which are no longer allocated to the health of people who come to consult, but which are used to increase their wealth. There is a distortion of the mission public health service”which falls to Cosem, believes Me Karsenti.

Suspicion of fictitious jobs

The expense reports of the director’s wife would only be “the emerged part” death “embezzlement”. During the CSE meeting of March 20, 2023, the elected officials also discovered that a Jaguar had been purchased by Daniel Dimermanas with funds from Cosem. In front of the staff representatives taken aback, the director assumes. “We are not in the class struggle. Do you want me to drive in a 2CV?”, he says to an elected official. And he drives the point home: “I use it when I go to work, run an errand or when I pick up health centers and visit them. So try to work the way the management works. You’re at 35 hours a week, we, c is per day.” The employees present say they were blown away by the “contempt” displayed according to them by their director.

According to numerous witnesses, this Jaguar would in fact be driven by the wife of Daniel Dimermanas. One of them claims that she uses it to “all his journeys, including to go on weekends or on vacation”. According to our information, Isabelle Dimermanas occupies a position of aesthetic and communication director at Cosem. As such, she is paid 12,000 euros gross per month. In their alert to the financial public prosecutor, the representatives of the CSE denounce “a presumed fictitious job”. “We don’t see her working. She’s not on the organization chart”relates a Parisian employee of Cosem. “We don’t receive any emails from him.he says. His daughter-in-law also holds the position of communication manager. And you don’t see her working in our centers either.” According to our information, Nava Dimermanas, of American nationality, is paid 3,500 euros gross monthly. Neither Isabelle Dimermanas nor Nava Dimermanas wished to answer our questions.

A major real estate sale in question

In reviewing the 2021 accounts, the CSE detected another “anomaly”. “We noticed that it was written: ‘transfer of fixed assets’ with the sum of 28 million euros opposite”, remembers an elected employee. Asked about this mysterious sum during the CSE meeting on February 20, Daniel Dimermanas admitted that in June 2021, he had bought the Eden company from Cosem, which owns all the real estate assets of the health centers. Value of the goods: 26 million euros, to which must be added two million euros corresponding to the shares of three subsidiaries of Cosem, also bought by Daniel Dimermanas*. are included in this “real estate package” the two most prestigious centers located in freestone buildings opposite the Saint-Augustin church and near the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris. They are now the property of Daniel Dimermanas and his two sons Samy and Haïm, who joined their father in the Eden company.

But Cosem has still not received the funds. And for good reason: the process used to conclude this sale is particularly advantageous for the buyer. This is a seller’s credit in fine with a maturity of 10 years. This system provides that the capital is not repaid gradually in monthly installments, but all at once, in this case here in 2032. According to our information, no guarantee has been taken out to ensure that payment will take place. “Personally, if you buy a house or an apartment, every month you have a monthly loan payment,” explains an internal source. ” There, Daniel Dimermanas does not pay monthly payments, he says that he will repay in 10 years but we have no guarantee, worries this source, you should know that Cosem was the owner of this property. I don’t know if you realize. We got completely ripped off.”

A loss of 28 million euros?

“We don’t know when our boss will pay the money he owes Cosem”is moved another employee. “Today, the situation is grotesque. Cosem no longer owns its walls and it pays rent to the new owner … Daniel Dimermanas. For Cosem, it is a dead loss of 28 million euros .” Master Karsenti is worried about the future. “As there is no guarantee attached to the acquisition of this property, perhaps Mr. Dimermanas will dissipate this heritage? Or perhaps he will not be solvent in 10 years? I do not know if this kind of process is legal, but personally, I have never seen this.”

More broadly, doctors are moved that Cosem, a non-profit association, derives from its original mission. “Cosem was created in 1945, in the wake of Social Security, recalls a Parisian practitioner. His initials mean Coordination of Social and Medical Works. Our goal is to heal people”with sector 1 fees and third-party payment, therefore a medicine “accessible to everyone”. “Our funding is largely provided by reimbursements from Social Security, but also by subsidies from which this type of structure benefits. But there, we realize that everything that could have been invested or reinvested has been in the wrong hands, for the enrichment of a family”loose the doctor, annoyed.

In addition, Cosem has opened an aesthetic medicine centre, the Institut Pasquier, near Gare Saint-Lazare. The Institute’s website, which makes no mention of any link with Cosem, boasts “a refined and innovative pink marble setting (…), the place of reference for women and men of all ages, concerned about their seduction and their well-being”. No third-party payment or sector 1 fees since it is about aesthetic medicine. But according to an inside source, the expensive keratopigmentation device (to change eye color) and the Artas robot (for hair transplantation) would have been “purchased with Cosem funds“. Asked about this, the Île-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS) tells us that the Institut Pasquier “is registered as a health center” and that aesthetic medicine is not part of the declared activities. The Agency adds that it is not “informed of the acquisition of these robots, this type of equipment not being the subject of an authorization“.

The facts reported to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office

Today, the lawyer representing the CSE calls on the State to carry out checks in private health centres. “The State has a kind of cheap virtue. It comes to say ‘I have a mission that I delegate to private services. I do not exercise control, I have paid in a certain way, and little it doesn’t matter what happens there.’ However, this is not what is expected of the State”, accuses Me Karsenti. In addition to the PNF, he alerted the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM). “This kind of center, financed by Social Security, must not become cash machines. When you run these structures, you have to serve the general interest and not serve yourself”concludes the lawyer.

Asked at the beginning of the week, the Paris CPAM replied that “after various exchanges (…) with the issuer of the report, she reported the facts to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office on April 7 in application of article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure**”. Health Insurance has also “warned its partners (Ministry of Health, ARS, URSSAF, tax administration) likely to be affected by the facts described”.

For its part, in response to our questions, the management of Cosem told us that it “does not intend to comment and will provide, if necessary, its answers to justice if it were to be seized”.

* The subsidiaries in question are Magentalab (dental prosthesis laboratory), Oren (IT consulting) and Seya (financial services).

** Any constituted authority, any public officer or civil servant who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or misdemeanor is required to give notice thereof without delay to the public prosecutor and to transmit to this magistrate all information, reports and acts relating thereto.

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