The trial of the former Minister for SMEs Alain Griset before the Lille Criminal Court for “breach of trust”, scheduled for Tuesday January 4, was postponed at the request of the defense of the defendant to May 25.
Alain Griset’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, represented at the hearing on Tuesday by Benoît Cousin, requested the postponement of the fact “the very short time between the closing of the case on December 15 and the hearing”. The former minister, absent on Tuesday, will therefore appear on May 25 at 2 p.m. in front of the 7th chamber.
Alain Griset, who before becoming minister had exercised the profession of taxi driver for more than thirty years, must respond to this court for “breach of trust” at the expense of the National Confederation of Crafts, Trades and Services ( Cnams) from the North. This is one of the aspects of the case which earned him his sentence on December 8 in Paris to six months suspended imprisonment and a suspended three-year ineligibility sentence. He resigned from the government in the process.
Alain Griset was prosecuted for having failed to declare, in August 2020, after his appointment to the government, part of his assets and his interests to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP).
Among the sums at stake, 130,000 euros placed in the Minister’s PEA and which belonged to the Cnams du Nord, an inter-professional organization that Alain Griset had headed since 1991. On this aspect, the former minister incurs five years of imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros, according to the Lille prosecutor’s office.
Before the Paris court, the former minister had argued in October that he had received in August 2019 “mandate” of Cnams for “make this sum grow over a short period in order to buy a property”. He was in passing congratulated on the capital gain of 19,000 euros achieved in eleven months.
The HATVP had taken legal action in November 2020 after noting the omission of Alain Griset. Tracfin, the anti-money laundering unit of Bercy, had for its part made a report to the Lille prosecutor’s office. For the HATVP, the main purpose of omitting a declaration was “to prevent the revelation of facts liable to receive the criminal qualification of breach of trust”.