Renaud Muselier Case: Marseille prosecutor’s office closes investigation into embezzlement of public funds without further action

The Marseille public prosecutor’s office has closed the preliminary investigation targeting Renaud Muselier and Wadeck Gorak without further action. The investigations concluded that the accusations contained in an anonymous report were “manifestly false.” An investigation for defamatory denunciation has now been opened.

The Marseille public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday, July 29, the closure without further action of the preliminary investigation targeting Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, as well as Wadeck Gorak. The procedure concerned suspicions of misappropriation of public funds, illegal conflict of interest, favoritism, active and passive corruption as well as receiving stolen goods.

The investigation was opened on July 3 following the receipt, on June 18, 2026, of an anonymous report. In a statement, the public prosecutor of Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, recalls that this letter accused Renaud Muselier “of having had Wadeck Gorak’s remuneration paid through public contracts, presented as his factotum and guardian of his secondary residence located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence”. Wadeck Gorak was also suspected of having benefited from a fictitious job within the PBC company, responsible for communication missions on behalf of the South Region.

The investigations were entrusted to the Organized and Specialized Crime Division (DCOS) of the Inter-departmental Judicial Police Service of Bouches-du-Rhône. Following the verification, the public prosecutor’s office believes that the accusations were based on no factual evidence. Nicolas Bessone thus indicates that “the investigations carried out in the context of this investigation made it possible to establish that the information transmitted in the anonymous report were manifestly false”. The prosecutor adds that “it thus appeared, on the one hand, that Wadeck Gorak exercised real activity within the PBC company and, on the other hand, that he was not and had never been the factotum or the guardian of Renaud Muselier’s secondary residence“. These conclusions led the Marseille public prosecutor’s office to close the entire procedure without further action.

A new investigation to find the author of the report

Questioned by police on July 22 in the context of this preliminary investigation, Renaud Muselier had stated that he had provided the elements to refute the accusations. In a statement released after this hearing, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region declared: “I was questioned today by police and I was able to provide all the factual and concrete elements proving the lies of an anonymous letter sent to the public prosecutor’s office.”

The existence of the anonymous report had been revealed by Nice-Matin before the official opening of the investigation. At that time, Renaud Muselier had denounced “defamatory denunciation” and referred to “the season of trash.”

The closure without further action nonetheless marks the beginning of a new procedure. Nicolas Bessone announces in fact that “as a follow-up to today’s decision to close without further action, a separate investigation has been opened for defamatory denunciation”. This offense is punishable by five years imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.

The investigations must now make it possible to identify the author of the anonymous report at the origin of this matter. After dismissing the suspicions of misappropriation of public funds and favoritism targeting Renaud Muselier, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office is now focusing its investigation on the circumstances of this denunciation deemed false.