The French paparazzi agency boss Michèle Marchand, known as 'Mimi', has been placed under investigation in a second potentially explosive case involving the media and politics, Mediapart can reveal. Marchand, 74, who is close both to President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte and former president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is already facing a probe for alleged witness tampering in relation to the retraction of evidence by businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in the investigation into Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.
According to Mediapart's information, on Thursday August 12th Marchand, who runs paparazzi agency Bestimage, was also placed under investigation in a different case, involving the publication of photos of the arrest of Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski in Paris in February 2020.
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That arrest took place two days after the online publication of videos of a sexual nature involving Benjamin Griveaux, the former official spokesman for the government under Emmanuel Macron, forcing him to abandon his attempt to become mayor of Paris for Macron's party La République en March in municipal elections. On February 15th 2020 Pavlenski, who has acknowledged his role in publishing the tapes, and his partner Alexandra de Taddeo were arrested in view of a waiting Bestimage photographer, who had been tipped off about the date and place of the detention.
'Mimi' Marchand is suspected of “receiving the proceeds of a breach of confidentiality” in this case. She is also suspected of “extortion” - obtaining an undertaking or the revelation of a secret through the use of violence or coercion – in a separate but related part of the investigation, at the expense of well-known French television presenter Karine Le Marchand.
Le Marchand, whose private life often features in the gossip media, had made a formal complaint to the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale (IGPN), who oversee police conduct. She suspected that officers from the police station in Paris's XVIth arrondissement or district had been leaking information to paparazzi about complaints made by celebrities.
Three police officers from that district have been placed under investigation.
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When questioned by Mediapart, Michèle Marchand's lawyer Caroline Toby rejected any suggestion that her client had committed an offence.
“In relation to 'receiving the proceeds of a breach of confidentiality', she received information, she was just doing her job as a journalist,” the lawyer said. On the issue of alleged extortion there was “nothing which suggests my client has done anything wrong”. Caroline Toby said: “Karine Le Marchand did not make a complaint against Michèle Marchand. There was no blackmail at all, they are good friends.”
The lawyer said that her client “may have paid a photographer whose photograph could have been published but wasn't” but denied any plot behind the operation. Caroline Toby added: “There was never any blackmail such as 'I won't publish in return for something'.”
When approached by Mediapart, Karine Le Marchand declined to comment publicly because an investigation is underway.
Corruption, police implicated … it resembles a real mafia-style system.
In June 202, as Mediapart revealed, one of the best-known paparazzi photographers at Bestimage, Sébastien Valiela, who took the photographs of the arrest of Pavlenski and de Taddeo, was placed under investigation for “receiving the proceeds of a breach of confidentiality” and also for “active corruption” - for allegedly “paying” a public agent to carry out or not carry out an act relating to their public duties
Three police officers from the Brigade Anticriminalité (BAC) – a plain-clothed unit that operates in sensitive high-crime areas in particular – in the XVIth arrondissement are suspected of having leaked confidential information to the photographer about the arrest of the Russian artist and Alexandra de Taddeo, the woman who had received the videos from Benjamin Griveaux several months earlier.
The three officers have been put under investigation for “breach of confidentiality”. For two of the officers the period in they are suspected of committing an offence goes beyond just the Griveaux-Pavlenski incident of February 2020, and extends to September 2020.
One of the three officers, who is suspected of having falsified his report of Piotr Pavlenski's arrest, was also placed under investigation for “forging a public document”, as the news agency AFP revealed in October 2020. According to Le Point magazine there are “serious doubts” over the chronology of the arrest as described in the officer's report.
Another of the three officers has also been placed under investigation for “passive corruption” - relating to a public agent allowing himself to be “bought” to carry out or not carry out an act relating to their public duties. When asked in June, this officer's lawyer said that his client “did not intend to comment on this case”. Fabien-Jean Garrigues, the lawyer acting for photographer Sébastien Valiela, said his client “contested” the claims against him.
“Corruption, police implicated … it resembles a real mafia-style system,” Alexandra de Taddeo's lawyer Noémie Saidi-Cottier told AFP. She also criticised the fact that her client had not been allowed to become a civil plaintiff in this case, as is often allowed in French criminal investigations.
After Bestimage photographed the arrest of Pavlenski and Alexandra de Taddeo the images were published by Paris Match magazine on February 19th 2020. This led to the Paris prosecution service opening an investigation on February 28th 2020 into “breach of confidentiality”, “receiving the proceeds of a breach of confidentiality” and the “unauthorised publishing of images of a person being restrained”.
A year before this case Bestimage and Paris Match had featured images of Benjamin Griveaux, who was then preparing his municipal campaign in Paris, posing with his wife, prominent lawyer Julia Minkowski, on the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge over the River Seine in Paris, with its famous padlocks or 'love locks'.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter