A stink bomb seems to have been dropped in the electoral campaign. The weekly magazine Le Point, which recently drew attention for publishing documents questioning the legality of Bygmalion’s professional services and other entities within the same group, alleging collusion with the UMP president Jean-François Copé, reignites the controversy with a new indiscretion targeted at… Olivier Bettati.
The politician from Nice was the liaison for the current party leader during the controversial internal elections of his party (Nice was one of the posts where the investigating commission found irregularities and annulled the result).
Opposed to Christian Estrosi, Olivier Bettati left the UMP group and is running in the elections at the head of a civic list with some municipal councilors from the majority, especially Benoït Kandel, former first deputy, who was also excluded from the majority group due to the Semiacs case.
However, the electoral campaign should be a confrontation between candidates and their projects for the city they aim to manage. Underhand tactics and dirty tricks should be left in the locker room and remain among gentlemen.
Regarding the case, Point.fr has thus obtained a strange invoice. It concerns a training conducted in the fall of 2013 by Ideepole, a subsidiary of Bygmalion, plainly titled: “Mastering Public Speaking and Media Appearances (Advanced).”
The beneficiary of the training is Olivier Bettati, general councilor of Alpes-Maritimes, former deputy to Christian Estrosi in Nice, and dissident candidate for the upcoming elections. The invoice amounts to €6,099.60 for three days of coaching and is addressed to the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes. A tidy sum when the service is genuinely provided.
But it becomes illegal enrichment when the training is fictitious—which is often the case—allowing the company and the beneficiary to split this amount.
The accused’s reaction was immediate and sharp on social media: @OBettati – Shameful political manipulation based on an invoice from @CG06. @LePoint is complicit, I am filing a complaint.
“I am outraged by Le Point’s methods of making serious accusations without contacting me and allowing me to defend myself. Everything is false.” Retorts Olivier Bettati,
Under the title of training granted to general councilors, he would have indeed attended, in the fall, at the Paris premises of “Doxeo-Idéepole,” a subsidiary of Bygmalion, four days (not three as claimed by Lepoint.fr) aimed at “Mastering Public Speaking and Media Appearances.”
Olivier Bettati has also provided evidence: Signed attendance sheets, agreement, and even two videos seeming to confirm his claims. He would also possess plane and taxi invoices.
One would imagine that the General Council, which footed the bill, would have conducted the necessary checks.
So, all of this… why? or for whom?
