Journaliste au pôle Enquêtes, j'ai rejoint Mediapart en janvier 2011, après avoir été pigiste à Libération (1986-1987), reporter spécialisé justice au Parisien (1988-1998), et grand reporter en charge de l'investigation au Journal du Dimanche (1999-2010).
J'ai publié plusieurs livres: "Un magistrat politique. Enquête sur Jean-Claude Marin, le procureur le plus puissant de France" (Pygmalion, 2015), "Qui veut la mort du juge d'instruction?" (Les Carnets de l'Info, 2007), et "Adjugé, volé. Chronique d'un trafic à Drouot" (Max Milo, 2011).
Declaration of interest
In the interest of transparency towards its readers, Mediapart’s journalists fill out and make public since 2018 a declaration of interests on the model of the one filled out by members of parliament and senior civil servants with the High Authority for Transparency and Public Life (HATVP), a body created in 2014 after Mediapart’s revelations on the Cahuzac affair.
Patricia Cahuzac, wife of former minister Jérôme Cahuzac, who earlier this year confessed to having an undeclared Swiss bank account, has been placed under formal investigation for alleged tax fraud and laundering the proceeds of tax fraud. The move is part of the wider investigation into her husband's hidden account. Michel Deléan reports.
Former International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured) has been sent for trial on charges of taking part in pimping activities at the end of a more than two-year investigation into a prostitution ring that staged orgies for his benefit in France, the US and Belgium. Michel Deléan reports on the background of the ‘Carlton affair' and details the case levelled against DSK.
The French prison population this month reached a record 68,569, more than 10,000 more than the official capacity of jails, according to the latest official figures released Monday. While some prisons cope with an overpopulation of 200%, France’s general inspector of prisons and detention centres, Jean-Marie Delarue, warned of the risk of violent rebellion among prisoners this summer. The government, meanwhile, is under attack by magistrates’ unions for dithering over a decisive reform of what President Hollande himself described as his predecessor’s “blind rush for all-out incarceration”. Michel Deléan and Lorraine Kihl report.
The Bettencourt affair has reached an unprecedented scope among the many scandals that have rocked France in recent decades. As a judicial ruling ordering the censorship of Mediapart’s reporting of the scandal kicks in this Monday evening, Michel Deléan dresses a summary of the judicial investigations into the affair which, over the past three years, have exposed a bed of political corruption and influence peddling, a record back payment in taxes on assets secretly stashed abroad, not to mention the outrageous antics of a high-society cabal and the sordid exploitation of one of Europe’s wealthiest individuals.
The court of appeal in Versailles has ruled that the secret recordings made by L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's butler, first revealed by Mediapart and which showed evidence of money-laundering, tax evasion, influence-peddling and improper interference in judicial procedures, are an invasion of her privacy. This is despite the fact that the tapes were ruled as admissible in the ongoing judicial investigation into the affair. Mediapart has announced it will appeal. Michel Deléan reports.
As widely expected, the prosecutor in Bordeaux says that 'in the absence of evidence' there should be no further action taken against the former president over claims that he took advantage of the billionaire’s mental frailty to obtain funds for his 2007 election campaign. But, as Michel Deléan reports, the three examining magistrates in charge of this high-profile and controversial case could still decide to send Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial.
Judge Jean-Michel Gentil has been accused of a 'major conflict of interest' and lack of impartiality after it emerged that one of the medical experts he used in the Bettencourt investigation is a friend of his. The disclosure, which has been given massive media coverage, follows the anonymous death threats and vitriolic attacks from right-wing politicians that greeted his decision to put former president Nicolas Sarkozy under formal investigation for allegedly exploiting the mental frailty of billionaire Liliane Bettencourt. But, as Mediapart's legal affairs expert Michel Deléan explains, this is simply the latest in a catalogue of attacks on judges who dare to turn the spotlight on powerful political and business interests.
Ziad Takieddine, who was a key intermediary between Sarkozy's entourage and the regime of Colonel Gaddafi and an important figure in the alleged illegal funding of the 1995 presidential campaign of Sarkozy’s political mentor and former prime minister Edouard Balladour, has been detained by police who suspect he was preparing to quit the country. The Franco-Lebanese businessman, who is under formal judicial investigation and forbidden to leave France, is said to have paid 200,000 euros to secure a Dominican Republic diplomatic passport (see above). Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske, Michel Deléan and Albert Michel report.
One of the arbitration judges who oversaw the controversial 403 million-euro award to businessman Bernard Tapie has been placed under formal investigation for alleged “conspiracy to commit fraud”. As Mediapart's legal affairs expert Michel Deléan explains, this dramatic development shows that the long-running affair is rapidly gathering momentum.
Just days after IMF boss Christine Lagarde faced questioning over her role in the affair, the saga of the 403 million euro award made to colourful businessman Bernard Tapie has taken a new twist with the news that one of the arbitration judges who agreed the payout has been held for questioning. Tapie's lawyer is also being questioned in custody, as investigators probe allegations of a conflict of interest during the arbitration. Michel Deléan and Laurent Mauduit report on the latest developments.
The prosecution authorities say that former budget minister Eric Woerth has no case to answer over claims that he awarded Liliane Bettencourt's wealth manager a state honour in return for hiring his wife. Though as Mediapart's legal affairs expert Michel Deléan says, that does not necessarily mean that this is the end of the affair for a man who was one of Nicolas Sarkozy's closest political allies.
An independent judicial investigation has been opened into the suspected illegal funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign by the former Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed Friday. The investigation into “money laundering, aiding and abetting money laundering and handling of the proceeds”, “influence peddling”, “active and passive corruption”, “fraud and use of the proceeds of fraud” and “misappropriation of company assets” by “unidentified persons” follows evidence uncovered during a preliminary investigation by the public prosecutor’s office, prompted by Mediapart's exclusive revelations published last year.
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Je ne veux pas d’antisémites, de négationnistes, de racistes, de xénophobes, d’islamophobes, d’homophobes ni de franchouillards souverainistes aux plus hautes fonctions de l’Etat. J'irai voter le 7 mai.
Évoquer des « prises d'otages » ou du « terrorisme » pour disqualifier les mouvements sociaux actuels n'est pas meilleur pour la démocratie que ce qu'on prétend combattre.
En presque cinquante ans de carrière, David Bowie a expérimenté une multitude de créations, sans commettre aucune faute de goût. Promenade subjective en musique et en images.
