Election corruption claims: how the 'Dassault System' worked

AA man who became involved in the election 'corruption' that French billionaire industrialist and senator Serge Dassault admitted to in a secretly-taped conversation has given Mediapart details of how the system worked. 'Athman' – not his real name – is a 32-year-old inhabitant from Dassault's political stronghold of Corbeil-Essonnes, south of Paris, who claims he “sampled” the money paid out by the senator during local elections to “incite” electors to vote for him.

Athman says he was not ultimately paid by the industrialist for his election efforts in 2010 and that as a result he has now decided to attack the alleged electoral corruption he calls “System D.”(1). The 32-year-old admits he was among a group of people who instigated the secret recording of Dassault in November last year, and has asked that for reasons of security his first name is changed, though his real voice is heard on the tapes published here by Mediapart (see below). However, Athman was not the person who handed Mediapart the recording of Dassault, nor one of the two men who filmed it.

In February one of those two men was badly wounded after being shot three times by a lone gunman. The chief suspect in that attempted murder – known as Younès B. - is the man cited in the recording as the person who had not properly distributed the 1.7 million euros that 88-year-old Dassault said he “gave” to help win an election in 2010. Dassault's lawyers revealed on Monday September 16th that the industrialist has been summoned to appear as an “assisted witness” before magistrates in Évry who are investigating that attempted murder. This status in French law implies that there is evidence suggesting the implication of the ‘assisted witness’ in a suspected crime, but that there is not what the French code of law defines as “serious or corroborating” evidence of involvement in a crime, criteria which are necessary for a suspect to be formally placed under investigation.

In his interview with Mediapart Athman describes how he first met the billionaire, who was mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes from 1995 to 2010, while still a teenager. “I have grown up with Monsieur Dassault, around the world of Monsieur Dassault, I have only known the Dassault world,” he says. At the time of that first meeting in 1996 the industrialist and media owner had just been voted in as mayor. The town was not far from the Melun Villaroche airfield where many of Dassault's aviation interests were based and the future UMP senator wanted to make the town a showcase for his political activities. Dassault, who inherited the family business from his father Marcel Dassault, also apparently wanted to prove that he could build up a legacy in his own right.

Dassault was jubilant at taking this town of 42,000 inhabitants from the communists who had governed it for the previous 33 years. A working class area, Corbeil-Essonnes had not been spared by the economic crises of those days. On taking up office as mayor Dassault promised to modernise the town, to make use of his contacts and business knowledge to kick-start the local economy. But 18 years on and Dassault has not delivered jobs. The unemployment rate has climbed over that period from 9.7% in 1995 to 13.8% in 2012. On some housing estates it is as high as 40%.
Yet “SD”, as local youths refer to him, has managed to keep political control of Corbeil. “It's like at Coluche's,” says Athman, referring to the Restaurants du coeur charity set up by the late French comedian Coluche which hands out meals to the needy. “At Coluche's you get pasta, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, bread, ravioli...well, at Monsieur Dassault's you have 100 [euro] banknotes, 200 notes, 500 notes, property... you can't call Monsieur Dassault a 'Picsou' [editor's note, French equivalent of Scrooge]. He is generous towards the inhabitants of Corbeil-Essonnes.” The claim is that, as Athman says, they repay the favour when it comes to local elections.

'Because of us, all that's going to stop'

Athman says he is afraid of the consequences of him talking because he is denouncing a system “in which generations and generations have got money. Because of us, all that's going to stop”. He claims that “everyone who's in Corbeil has had a taste of Monsieur Dassault's money”. So why is he now denouncing the system? “We weren't paid, we were neglected, we were badly treated and it's not good to make promises you can't keep,” he says.

'You're not going to say to him: “Ah no, Sir, you need to add another envelope!”'

According to Athman, local residents were asked in 2009 to make their demands – of all different natures - at Pinsons, the Dassault electoral headquarters in Corbeil-Essonnes. They came into “SD's” office and envelopes were handed out. Athman said he got to know the place during the time between the first and second rounds of voting in the 2009 mayoral election that Dassault won (though the result was later annulled). The young man asked for a “modest” sum of 10,000 euros.

In this extract (in French, below) Athman speaks of a man called Jacques Lebigre as being Serge Dassault's right-hand man. He is a former activist in the old Gaullist militia outfit Service d'Action Civique, the one-time chief of staff to Dassault in Corbeil-Essonnes and a former secretary of the right-wing UMP for the Essonne département where Corbeil is situated. Lebigre is known to be the most loyal of the loyal to Dassault and is known locally as the industrialist’s “bag carrier”. Athman also says that when Serge Dassault gave him the money, he did not dare check the sum in front of the billionaire.” When you're in front of him you feel reserved, a little ashamed, you don't think you can just do anything in front of him,” he comments. “You're not going to say to him: 'Ah no, Sir, you need to add another envelope!'”

'First of all they wanted to buy social peace. Then they made us promises...'

Athman, who left school with a certificate in electrical engineering, did some odd jobs and spent time in prison for drug dealing, says he was approached by the Dassault team to carry out a “job” that was unusual but lucrative. He describes how they came to see him. “We were self-styled yobs. They wanted to buy social peace. They came to us, they made us promises. They knew my situation, they told me: 'We can help you'. Us, we never went knocking on SD's door, it's SD who came and who wanted to surround himself with people like us.” says Athman. “SD likes to find the most aggressive. Which means everyone becomes wolves. You tell yourself that by being sheep you'll get trampled on, that by being calm you'll get nothing, and that by being a yob you'll earn yourself credibility.”

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1. In French 'Système D'  means 'resourcefulness'. Here there is a reference to the fact that 'D' also stands for Dassault.

'We asked for 120,000 euros for me and my group'
After Dassault's election win in 2008 was invalidated in June 2009 by France's top administrative court the Conseil d'État, he was ineligible for office for a year. So the billionaire was forced to hand over the reins of the town to his trusted ally and employee Jean-Pierre Bechter, a director of Dassault's media company Socpresse. In the subsequent election in October 2009 Bechter was voted in as mayor by just 27 votes. At the time, the word on Corbeil's housing estates such as Les Tarterêts, Nacelle, and Montconseil was clear, according to Athman: a vote for Bechter was a vote for Dassault.

But in March 2010 the October 2009 vote was also invalidated, this time because Serge Dassault featured on Bechter's voting slips. There had to be a new campaign, and on this occasion Athman was fully involved. In his interview with Mediapart he describes the door-to-door canvassing that took place and reveals how the victory in the 2010 election was possible. “We explained [to voters] that if they needed something, a change of housing, a bigger flat, a job on the minimum wage in the parks department or with an association, they had to vote for Dassault. It's quite simple.”

However, the work had to be carried out to the bitter end. “Monsieur Dassault only pays once, when the result has been achieved. If the people don't do what they should in the voting booth then no one gets his share,” explains Athman. And even after the victory, the helpers still have to wait. “The money arrives after nine, ten months...”

'In 2010 they got me to open accounts'

“I was made a promise in 2010. That promise was not kept,” says Athman. He directly accuses Younès B, Dassault's “enforcer”, of not having distributed the money as agreed. A former inhabitant of Les Tarterêts housing estate, Younès B. is seen by some as a local gang “boss”, by others as a “poodle”. He remains one of the main beneficiaries of the “System D”, a system that apparently enabled him to become the owner of a café and another business in Corbeil-Essonnes. “He thought it was ok not to pay a small neighbourhood like mine,” says Athman. “That's why we weren't paid.”

Yet the methods of payment had all been set up in readiness. In order for them to get the money, the system's workforce were asked to open bank accounts abroad. In the recording published on Sunday by Mediapart, Dassault himself mentions the Lebanon, a line of inquiry already being pursued by investigators in Paris. In April 2012 the Brigade de répression de la délinquance sur la personne (BRDP) – the police squad that deals with crimes against the person – in Paris opened a formal investigation following a complaint by Serge Dassault's daughter Marie-Hélène Habert and Dassault's son Laurent, for “harassment”. Police enquiries led them to focus on a former resident of Les Tarterêts, Mamadou K., now living in Belgium, who had collected money from a bank in the Lebanon. This considerable sum came from a bank account linked to Serge Dassault.

 'Our parents never managed to save 100,000 euros'

The sums of money involved in the system are considerable, says Athman. “My father worked all his life,” he says. “”He just had enough to pay his bills, for this and that, to bring up his children and that's all. And to have 1,000 euros for his funeral. So you can imagine, someone comes along and offers you 100,000 euros...” In such circumstances it is not hard to garner votes, he says. “I was going to vote for the Right because it's a corrupt system,” says Athman. “While knowing that the Right are very wary of immigrants.”

'We no longer fight: we know how to get money. We wait for the elections.'

For Athman, the peace that exists between different neighbourhoods in the town is the only positive that he can see in the “System D.”. Nonetheless, this does not stop him asking himself what will happen when it ends. “The world of local associations and education are in complete chaos. When all this is over, what will young people do? [The employers] will ask them: 'You haven't done anything for 10 years?'”

'Several of us bought a hidden camera. And we trapped them.'

At the end of 2012 Athman and his henchmen succeeded, through others, in trapping a number of elected representatives into making certain statements. They intended to use this, but as leverage to get protection so that they would not become targets of any reprisals. “In January 2013 we saw the police at Nanterre [west of Paris],” says Athman. “We told them about the tense situation, we told them that lives were in danger. They took it all with a pinch of salt. I told them that we had other proofs [at our disposal] but only if we had protection. The police told us that 'this isn't America'.”

It was a month later that one of the group's friends who had secretly recorded Dassault was shot and wounded. “They had a go at him for no reason. That's why we want guarantees,” says Athman.

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English version by Michael Streeter