Richard Gianotti is the subject of an investigation for embezzlement, confirms the Nice Public Prosecutor, Xavier Bonhomme. He will soon be interviewed by investigators.
The judiciary suspects the director of France’s largest municipal police force — 450 officers in Nice — of continuing to receive his salary as a national police commander since December 2017. It was at that time that he was appointed head of Nice’s municipal police. Richard Gianotti also received an additional allowance paid by the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolitan authority.
Prior to this, Richard Gianotti was a police commander responsible for public security, stationed in Menton, Nice. He has had a 30-year career in the national police. He was also posted at the central directorate of recruitment and training.
The city, his current employer, responds that “a precautionary suspension of the official was immediately decided for the duration of the investigation.” The municipality specifies that the investigation is not “related to his duties as director of the municipal police.”
