A French judge suspected of having been compromised by the Corsican mafia and of having misused more than 100,000 euros in public money was remanded in custody in the early hours of Saturday April 6th. Earlier the judge, Hélène Gerhards, had been placed under formal investigation for some ten alleged offences including “misuse of public money”, “influence peddling”, “criminal conspiracy”, forging public documents and “money laundering”.
The unprecedented remand in custody of a serving judge has astonished the French judiciary. “Wow, just wow,” said one senior judge, whose reaction summed up the mood of many in the criminal justice system. “We've never seen this before.”
The case is made even more explosive by the fact that Hélène Gerhards is said to be close to the current justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti. The judge herself told Mediapart that the minister wrote a dedication in one of his books when he was a lawyer, saying he dreamed of her becoming a colleague in his law practice.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
The judge apparently did consider joining the lawyer's practice before eventually declining. Éric Dupond-Moretti then became justice minister in 2020 and appointed Hélène Gerhards as a member of a prestigious ministerial taskforce on circuit courts, even though at the time she had no great expertise in the issue. In the end, after the nomination caused something of a stir inside the ministry, she herself asked Éric Dupond-Moretti's chief of staff if she could step down, in the minister's own interests.
The names of Gerhards and Dupond-Moretti have already appeared together in a past, embarrassing, case which ended with a reprimand for the future minister, after he was said to have exerted pressure on the president of a criminal court in Bastia, Corsica.
Hélène Gerhards was arrested in connection with the current case on April 3rd by detectives from the anti-corruption unit the Office Central de Lutte contre la Corruption et les Infractions Financières et Fiscales (OCLCIFF). The minister himself has not responded to Mediapart's questions on his links with her and his level of knowledge concerning the ongoing investigation. The claims against the judge are serious and unprecedented in their scope, as stated by the public prosecutor in Nice, Damien Martinelli, confirming Mediapart's earlier revelations about the case (see Mediapart's initial story in French here) .
Reasons for the remand in custody
A former investigating judge in Corsica from January 2011 to September 2016, who was transferred to Toulouse and then to the court of appeal in Agen in south-west France, Hélène Gerhards is being investigated for having links with one of the alleged key figures of 'Le Petit Bar', one of the most dangerous and criminal gangs in Corsica. This man, Johann Carta, was involved in renovation work on her magnificent villa at Piettrosella south of Ajaccio, which is estimated to be worth around two million euros. Carta, aged 50, who is “known to the police”, is often described as the “financier of Le Petit Bar”. He is currently on remand in Marseille over a financial case.
In a press statement about the current case the prosecution service in Nice, which oversaw the preliminary investigation for three years before handing it to an investigating judge, spoke of possible “reciprocal services” between the judge and the Carta clan, in exchange for agreed gifts.
“Among the services rendered, the investigation has brought to light that, besides legal guidance, the judge could have researched and communicated information concerning ongoing proceedings or data from files,” said prosecutor Damien Martinelli. He added: “This circle of friends around the judge kept highlighting her profession, this closeness might have appeared in the view of its members like a guarantee in case of legal difficulties, while showing, in the view of others, the potential for extensive influence.”
As Mediapart has already reported, Hélène Gerhards is also suspected of having used her position as an investigating judge to commission expert analyses from those close to her (her gendarme ex-husband, au pairs) in order to pay them with public money from the Ministry of Justice's coffers for those fictitious assessments. “In total the overall value of the misappropriated [money] could be more than 120,000 euros,” said the Nice prosecutor.
Like anyone facing accusations, Hélène Gerhards, who denies committing any illegal act or ethical irregularity, benefits from a presumption of innocence.
It's a demolition job.
The judge's retention in custody, which is unprecedented in French legal history, was demanded by the Nice prosecution for the following reasons: “To conserve proof or material evidence which is necessary for the truth to come out, to prevent pressure being put on witnesses or victims as well as their family, to stop fraudulent cooperation between the person concerned and their fellow actors or accomplices, to stop the offence and prevent it happening against.”
“These demands,” the prosecution went on, “are also motivated by the need to put an end to the exceptional and persistent disruption to public order caused by the seriousness of the offence, the circumstances of its commission and the scale of the damage caused, as any forgery and use of public documents by someone in authority that is liable to be established is of a nature so as to undermine necessary trust in judicial authority.”
Even before the judge's questioning was over, her lawyers Caty Richard and Yann Le Bras had attacked what they called a “demolition job in which the judicial authorities are acting with no holds barred”. They criticised methods which they say are “as legally unjustified as they are pointlessly brutal” and raised questions over the publication in the press – Mediapart, in fact – of information “that strangely highlights her link with the current minister of justice”. There was no denial of the link itself.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
The case involving Hélène Gerhards began, by chance, in Marseille in the south of France in a separate financial case involving members of 'Le Petit Bar' criminal gang from Corsica. At the heart of those investigations is Johann Carta, known for having worked in a beach bar frequented by prominent figures from Corsica and Paris, before moving into property and football as a players' agent. He is also suspected by investigators of being one of the key financial backers of 'Le Petit Bar'.
In the course of telephone taps carried out by the legal authorities in Marseille, it seems that Carta and his alleged accomplices spoke often of a female judge friend, as already reported by Le Monde. Moreover Johann Carta, who changes his phone all the time, seemed to be in charge of organising renovation work at this judge's Corsican villa.
In one intercepted call Johann Carta even seems to put pressure on the builders working on the judge's villa, whose location the police were eventually able to identify. At the start of 2021 the prosecution service in Nice in southern France then opened an investigation into “laundering the proceeds of tax fraud”, organising “illegal work” and “influence peddling” in the case in which the judge has now been remanded in custody.
One person moving in Johann Carta's circles, Khalid A., a butcher by profession, is also suspected of having links with the judge. The two men, who did not respond to questions from Mediapart sent via their lawyers, are currently behind bars, remanded in custody as part of the separate Marseille investigation.
The judge who didn't know
Talking to Mediapart on Sunday March 31st Judge Gerhards confirmed links with Johann Carta, who had overseen certain aspects of the work on her villa and whom she had seen “five or six times” in recent years (see black box below). But she said she had not known who he was because this man - who was “adorable with children” - had been introduced to her simply as “Johann” by an artisan who was also working on the house.
Hélène Gerhards insisted she never had any financial relationship with Johann Carta and had “panicked” when she realised who he really was in 2022 – though in April 2021 Le Monde had already profiled the “Le Petit Bar financier”. Asked if she had then alerted her hierarchy of her links with Johann Carta and the potential risks of mafia infiltration that they might pose, she said she had not.
The judge also insisted that she did not cross paths with Johann Carta, either directly or indirectly, while working as a judge in Corsica. This statement is contradicted by the fact that, according to Mediapart's information, several years ago she asked for him to be phone-tapped in a case she was in charge of investigating, one which was later closed with no further action being taken.
A judicial source well-versed in Corsican legal matters, who asked to stay anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said: “Everyone in Corsica knows who Carta is. And meeting him when you're a judge is unthinkable. Unthinkable.”
Meanwhile investigators have made discoveries on the issue of alleged misuse of public money. One claim involves suggestions that Hélène Gerhards commissioned expert assignments from her gendarme ex-husband, who was then paid with public money from the Ministry of Justice for this fictitious work (on computer and telephone issues). According to Mediapart's information the ex-husband, Jean-Marc R., has admitted some of the facts.
Questioned by Mediapart about whether she gave her ex-husband work when she was an investigating judge, Hélène Gerhards said simply that she had handed over some investigative assignments to the gendarme investigation department to which he had been posted in Corsica, and that was all. Her ex-husband declined to respond to Mediapart's questions, explaining that he had “already answered those of the [police] investigators”.
Close to justice minister Dupond-Moretti...
As for the links between Judge Gerhards and the current justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti, one episode perhaps sums them up. When the judge's work computer was seized at the start of the investigation in 2021 – she was still working in Toulouse - Hélène Gerhards phoned one person - Éric Dupond-Moretti. He did not take the call. However, when questioned by Mediapart Judge Gerhards denied any attempt to contact the minister.
The names of Gerhards and Dupond-Moretti were also involved in an embarrassing past case, which ended with a reprimand for the future minister. A star lawyer at the time, Éric Dupond-Moretti faced accusations that in 2017 he had intimidated the president of the criminal court in Bastia in Corsica, Marie-Laure Piazza, in connection with a criminal trial.
The case turned on pressure supposedly exerted by Éric Dupond-Moretti, who accused Marie-Laure Piazza of having manipulated jurors during legal discussion in an earlier criminal trial in which the well-known lawyer had appeared for the defence. Éric Dupond-Moretti, who later described Marie-Laure Piazza as “one of the worst presidents of a circuit court [that he had] come across in [his] career”, boasted of having received letters from juries attacking the judge's methods. Éric Dupond-Moretti has never produced any letter supporting these assertions.
But it transpires that one of the associate judges in that trial was Hélène Gerhards, who was for a while suspected of having helped Dupond-Moretti's client, through the angling of certain questions during the hearing. Questioned in March 2017 by detectives in Ajaccio as part of the investigation into the alleged intimidation by Éric Dupond-Moretti, Hélène Gerhards showed little inclination to support her colleague on the bench.
She did, however, tell the detectives that she had a “very good professional relationship” with Éric Dupond-Moretti and with a lawyer close to the minister, Anna-Maria Sollacaro, the daughter of the former head of the bar in Ajaccio who was murdered in 2012. Éric Dupond-Moretti meanwhile told the police that he had been the lawyer for Hélène Gerhards's ex-husband, without stating the nature of the case in which he had represented him.
The professional relationship between Éric Dupond-Moretti and Hélène Gerhards was clearly “so good” that the judge was actually asked by Éric Dupond-Moretti to join his law firm. He did this through a dedication in one of the books that he sent her, the judge told Mediapart. She told us that she had considered the proposal but had eventually declined, as she felt she was more of a judge than an advocate.
Yet as mentioned earlier, once he was appointed to head the Ministry of Justice in July 2020, the new minister quickly made Hélène Gerhards a member of a prestigious ministerial task force on circuit courts and regional criminal courts. This appointment, made official by a letter dated October 12th 2020, caused widespread surprise in the ranks of the judiciary as Hélène Gerhards did not have a reputation for having particular knowledge and experience of these types of court at that time.
The judge herself acknowledged that she did not sit in a circuit court more than once a year. As a result of the minor stir over this within the judiciary, Judge Gerhards in the end suggested to the minister's chief of staff that she should not take up her place in the task force, for the minister's own sake. When questioned on March 27th by Mediapart about his links to the judge, Éric Dupond-Moretti did not reply.
….and close to former spy chief Squarcini
But Judge Gerhards's influential contacts are not limited to the justice minister. Emails seen by Mediapart also show her connections to Bernard Squarcini, the former director of France's domestic intelligence service during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency. According to an email dated March 31st 2016, which was seized as part of a case involving the luxury goods group LVMH – in which Squarcini is due to be tried soon over espionage carried out for the company – it seems that he sought the “kind attention” of the judge over a fraud case in which the son of a former colleague in the intelligence service, Didier V., was the alleged victim.
The message began on a personal note: “I hope that calmness has returned on all fronts.” And it ended with a request: “Thanks for your help.” The judge responded in under five hours, informing Squarcini in detail about the state of the proceedings while questioning the “grotesque handling” of the case by two judges whose names she quoted.
It is worth noting that these same two judges had, at the start of the 2010s, been behind the first investigation targeting Hélène Gerhards in connection with a judicial probe that had been hit by suspected leaks of information. Significant withdrawals of money made by Judge Gerhards in the south of France also attracted legal attention. But the investigations eventually came to nothing, concerning both the leaks and the cash, and she was exonerated.
Questioned by Mediapart, Bernard Squarcini said that he did not want to make “any comment” on his links with Hélène Gerhards, referring to “very old and mundane conversations”. As for the judge herself, she did not deny knowing the spy chief but said she did not recall the emails in question.
Other correspondence by Judge Gerhards also attracted Mediapart's curiosity. In June 2015 she was in contact with someone called Bruno Susini, whom she called “Dear Bruno” in her emails, on the subject of a judicial liaison post in Senegal that she wanted. Susini is a good acquaintance of Bernard Squarcini and is a former member of French special forces with many contacts in Africa, something on which the judge hoped to rely for her application to Senegal. But in vain: she did not get the job.
Hélène Gerhards had dealings with Susini in Corsica in her position as a judge. In the middle of the 2010s she presided over a hearing that ended in his conviction for the illegal possession of weapons. The judge clearly had no qualms about later approaching him to further her own career.
The name of Bruno Susino – he did not reply to Mediapart's requests for comment – has since become familiar in judicial circles. He was placed under investigation in 2018 over allegations of “conspiracy to commit a crime” in a case involving the planned assassination of an opponent of the president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
At Susini's home investigators found a Mossberg rifle with telescopic sights (owned legally), 14,000 euros in cash and a Republic of Congo diplomatic passport on which he was described as an envoy working on behalf of Denis Sassou Nguesso.
When questioned as part of the investigation Bruno Susini explained that he had “carried out services” for Congo with Bernard Squarcini, and spoke of the existence of a “parallel route” between France and Africa. But he denied any involvement in the plan to assassinate the Congolese opposition figure.
Daniel Forestier, a former agent in the DGSE, France's overseas intelligence agency, who had admitted being party to the criminal plot and named Bruno Susini as the person behind it, was shot five times and killed in a car park in the French Alps in 2019. The case has still not been solved.
Hélène Gerhards says she knew nothing of Bruno Susini's past. In her conversation with Mediapart the judge said she regretted that she had not yet had a chance to speak to detectives in the current investigation. Following her arrest, questioning and subsequent remand in custody she now has the opportunity to respond fully to any questions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English version by Michael Streeter