Small gifts, “services rendered”… Former police officer and prefect Alain Gardère, suspected of corruption, in court

The investigation began with suspicions surrounding the lifestyle of the former Marseille police chief, now 67 years old.

Alain Gardère, 67, is on trial from Monday before the Paris Criminal Court. Seven years of investigation have shown “the vulnerability” of the former prefect “to requests”according to the investigating judge, for whom the senior official ended up mixing his professional activities with “interested friendships”.

He is on trial from Monday May 13 until June 20 alongside 12 other people and two companies by the Paris criminal court for a long list of offenses, including active or passive corruption, abuse of authority, illegal taking of interest, abuse of corporate assets or even concealment of abuse of corporate assets.

Responsible for security at the Parisian airports of Le Bourget and Roissy in 2011-2012, director in 2015-2016 of the National Council for Private Security Activities (CNAPS, the body which issues approvals in this sector), the senior civil servant, today Now retired, is suspected of having gotten into the habit of asking for benefits while using his position. Grand chief of Parisian police stations, in the 2000s, Alain Gardère could be as angry as he was affectionate with his colleagues.

Favors to his Freemason “brothers”

In an essential position in private security, he accelerates authorizations to carry weapons and receives cases of wine, tickets for haute couture fashion shows, or promises of a trip to Hungary… As prefect of Roissy airport, he obtains an access badge for an old friend, director of a Parisian cabaret where the police have their habits.

The list is long: a dinner at the Eiffel Tower, inexpensive work in his apartments… And then services rendered not to friends, but to “brothers”. “Belonging [d’Alain Gardère] to Freemasonry (no doubt) led him to favor certain people”concludes the investigating judge.