Did Arnaud Lagardère have the means to assume an expensive lifestyle? This question underlies the investigation started on December 27, 2019 by the High Council of the Statutory Auditors (the H3C), and which relates not to the leader of the group but on Guy Isimat Mirin. After two and a half years of work, the regulator has, according to our information, decided to prosecute the current auditor of the personal companies of the industrialist.
On July 13, he sent her a statement of grievances, accusing her of “shortcomings” related to the certification of the 2014 to 2018 accounts of Lagardère Capital Management, the “non-disclosure of criminal facts to the public prosecutor of Paris” and to Tracfin, according to the investigation report to which The world had access. His lawyers must respond, by October 15, to the regulator, before a probable judgment in the first quarter of 2023. In theory, Guy Isimat-Mirin risks a financial sanction and, in the worst case, a radiation from the profession.
The investigators looked into the circuit of expenses of the son of Jean-Luc Lagardère, who ceded his empire to him on his death in 2003. While the average citizen has a checkbook in his name to pay his bills, Arnaud Lagardère drew on one of his personal companies, Lagardère Capital Management (LCM), to meet his personal expenses (purchase of jewelry, Hergé board at 100,000 euros, according to sources familiar with the matter) and to cover the operating costs of his properties in Rambouillet (Yvelines) and in the villa Montmorency, this chic enclave nestled in the 16e district in Paris.
Amounts that swelled from year to year
Arnaud Lagardère also paid through this a debt of 32.5 million euros to the wife of Jean-Luc Lagardère, inherited from the estate of the latter. “The C/C [compte courant] LCM represents AL’s personal account [Arnaud Lagardère]. Debited are non-professional expenses of AL (travel, residence work, etc.) that Lagardère Ressources [une filiale de Lagardère] paid and then transferred to Lagardère SAS via LCM”, Guy Isimat-Mirin himself acknowledged in his audit documents, set out in the statement of objections. In short, the Lagardère group paid the expenses, which were then reimbursed to it by Arnaud Lagardère, via LCM.
Problem, the one who presided over the destinies of Hachette, Paris Match or Europe 1 did not receive the dividends paid each year to LCM (15 million euros per year) in respect of its 10% stake in Lagardère. Indeed, the company also supported its personal debt (166 million euros in 2016), and Crédit Agricole had pledged its participation. As the investigators note, any payment “dividends or reserves” would have been likely to lead “termination of contract” with the bank, and therefore to cause the repayment of all or part of the loan.
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