On October 5, 2023, “Additional investigation” focuses on Sophia Chikirou, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s communications expert. Criticized internally, it is now the subject of a legal investigation for fraud. Did she, via her communications agency Mediascop, overcharge for certain services during the 2017 presidential campaign to benefit from undue reimbursement from the State?
In 2018, rebellious France and its leader are in the sights of justice. The movement is suspected of having inflated its campaign bills during the 2017 presidential election, in order to have them unduly reimbursed by the State. At the heart of the investigations, the 28 pages of invoices from Mediascop, the company of Sophia Chikirou (the communications director of Jean-Luc Mélenchon), transmitted to the campaign accounts commission. Media strategy, production, events… in total, between September 2016 and April 2017, it invoiced its services to the tune of 1,161,000 euros. Sylvain Tronchet, journalist in the investigation unit of Radio France, examined the lines of accounts.
250 euros to put a speech online
Let’s take the section “Audio extraction and publication on Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Soundcloud account”, the title of which hides a simple operation. It consists of putting your speeches online on a platform and requires “a person and a computer”. For each of the 19 speeches, the service is invoiced at 250 euros excluding taxes, for a total of approximately 5,000 euros, which “seems extremely expensive compared to the actual work that is done.” Five thousand euros, the journalist points out, is the equivalent of two months’ salary at Mediascop, or two months of work billed for a task which represents, according to him, “all in all, a big week of work.”
Two other invoices caught his attention: in total, it is 32,325 euros, required by Mediascop for general costs. However, the company has no premises, no switchboard, no vehicle; its only expenses are the salaries of its employees and taxes, according to him. However, all these costs, up to the accountant’s invoice, are re-invoiced to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign association.
“Why are the staff not hired directly by the campaign team? The reality is that, between ordering and invoicing, there is a filter called Mediascop, which margins, and which earns money. And when Mediascop makes money, it’s Sophia Chikirou who makes money.”
Sylvain Tronchetjournalist at the Radio France Investigation Unit
At the request of the investigating judge, in 2022, legal experts dissected Mediascop’s accounting. Their report, unveiled by Mediapart, makes it possible to quantify the remuneration received personally by Sophia Chikirou as president and sole shareholder of Mediascop: more than 136,000 euros for ten months of campaigning, including 65,000 paid in the form of dividends. She company Mediascop saw its profitability rate jump, going from 12% during the 2012 presidential election to 22% in 2017. There are still many gray areas, with Sophia Chikirou having, according to Mediapart, never received the experts who asked him for a date. Since the start of this affair, the boss of Mediascop has denied any abuse.
Extract from “Sophia Chikirou, the queen of spades by Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, a document to be seen in “Additional investigation” on October 5, 2023.
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