a search carried out at the prefecture of Orléans in an investigation targeting the prefect for “illegal taking of interests”

A search was carried out on Tuesday April 5 at the prefecture of the Center-Val-de-Loire region in Orléans, learned France Bleu Orléans from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, confirming information from the newspaper The Parisian. This search was organized as part of a “preliminary investigation of the heads of illegal taking of interest in March”, indicates the PNF.

Régine Engström, prefect of the region and Loiret, is targeted by this investigation. She is suspected of having potentially favored her former employer, the private real estate group Nexity in a real estate project in Montargis.

This project concerns the renovation of the Gudin barracks, the site was initially to be partly destroyed. In the end, the barracks remained intact. The announced destruction of part of the barracks had mobilized heritage defenders. It is the Ministry of Culture which has recently given the green light to the procedure. The investigation will have to demonstrate whether it intervened in favor of Nexity, in particular with the Ministry of Culture.

The prefect had, a few days later, announced her withdrawal from the file to avoid any conflicts of interest. This does not prevent the PNF from carrying out this search. These suspicions of illegal taking of interests, when they were revealed in the press, had even reacted to Stéphane Bern himself. The ambassador of French heritage, was moved by it on France Bleu Orléans: “I want to believe that for the moment, there has been no bribe, no bribe. This issue is burning, and I make it an important symbol of the defense of heritage.”