Benjamin Griveaux was on track to win the mayor of Paris. La Macronie believed in him, and Mimi Marchand, queen of the paparazzi, friend and image consultant of the presidential couple, accompanied him in his communication (“Complement of the investigation” found the invoices in his campaign accounts). The Griveaux couple were featured in the celebrity press, the “Mimi method” worked… until the day when everything exploded with the broadcast of an intimate video. The former government spokesman is forced to throw in the towel.
Revenge from Mimi Marchand?
A few days later, “the diabolical ones who brought down the candidate” and their arrest made the front page of Paris Match... supporting photos and video. A “scoop” provided by Mimi Marchand’s agency, Bestimage. Alexandra de Taddeo and Piotr Pavlenski are indicted for invasion of privacy: of an affair with the candidate, she had kept an intimate video, he broadcast it on the internet. The couple told “Complément d’Enquête” that this episode would, according to them, be the result of revenge from Mimi Marchand.
“I understand that there was, at one time or another, corruption and agreement between the police and Mimi Marchand, her paparazzi, her ‘barbouzes’… and that they agreed to organize these ‘paparazzades’. And then sell the photos to the media”.
Alexandra de Taddeoto “Further investigation”
The day after the candidate’s resignation, both hide, but are arrested under the flashes, in the 16th arrondissement… How do Mimi Marchand’s photographers manage to always be in the right place, at the right time? Were they notified by the police?
Breach of professional secrecy
In this case, it would be rather the opposite, as Mimi Marchand recounts during her hearing before the police, of which “Complement of the investigation” was able to consult the minutes. “The couple go out, and [le photographe] told me that he called the cops who weren’t there (…) so that they could be arrested. Then on the public highway, they take the photos of the arrest.”
A police officer was suspended for allegedly writing a false surveillance report. Michèle Marchand and her photographer are being prosecuted for concealment of violation of professional secrecy.
Excerpt from “From ‘Here’ to the Elysée: Mimi Marchand, the influential of the Republic”, a portrait to see in “Complement of the investigation” on January 13, 2022.
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