The 9 November, a couple managing several communication agencies appeared before the tribunal de Grande Instance of Nantes for a huge financial scam.
This is a story unusual, which was held on November 9, in front of in front of the chamber’s financial and economic TGI of Nantes, where a couple of quarantine had to answer to the Justice. Forgery, use of forgery, misuse of corporate assets, bankruptcy, effect of cavalry, identity theft… for about twenty minutes, Marc Fricoteaux, chairman of the hearing, details the list of charges against Stephanie Bourval and Olivier Pouchus, the founders of Balthazar, The Big B, and Curiosity is Beautiful, with its sides, a stack of folders that reaches his shoulder. “If I get into the specifics, I do not know what time we’ll finish”, he adds.
in the Face of them, two ex-employees of the communications company, Sabine L. and Romaric D., who constituted themselves as a civil party, get all the same naked in front of the size of the folder.
“We had suspicions as we were starting to not be paid for,”
The case began in 2013. The advertising agency, Balthazar, founded by the husband Pouchus celebrates its 10th anniversary so sad. On 11 January, the judgment for legal redress is to be pronounced, followed on 2 may, the winding-up. When others would throw in the towel, the Pouchus announce to their employees that they have found a buyer.
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just a week after, the couple takes over the small company, renaming it “The Big B”, through a friend, Jean Stanghellini, who “hosts legally”. “We continued to do the same activity with the same customers,” says Sabine, responsible council-strategy invited to the bar. Hired one month before the liquidation of Balthazar, she has, as six of his colleagues, decided to follow his bosses in the new entity. The 11 other employees were, themselves, obtained a dismissal on economic grounds. “I had nothing to lose to stay, and the job was super,” apologizes the thirty-year-old who received a salary of 3,000 euros net per month.
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A year later, on November 3, 2014, the axe falls. Again, the business is slowly collapsing. The couple creates their third structure, the agency’s Curiosity is Beautiful, from the ashes of the second. Same procedure as above: we move, we change the cards, and it is left more beautiful.
well, almost. This time the employees in question. “We wanted to trust, but we had suspicions as we were starting to not be paid,” says Romaric Dabin. To justify them, Stephanie Bourval, perceived as “the inspirer, the great artificière”, according to the public ministry, there are a thousand reasons for its financial difficulties. “She played non-stop on our heartstrings. She has even gone so far as to present me an e-mail from the so-called accounting one of our clients in which the latter is accused of having embezzled € 17,000 in order to justify not being able to we pay,” says Sabine.
The company acknowledges the employee to have spent 2,600 euros in phone
On April 23, 2015, Sabine flies to San Francisco to visit her sister. A vacation planned long-standing that she must cut short because his father died suddenly. At the edge of the forbidden bank (salary of march have not yet been transferred), it can’t buy a plane ticket, and must be repatriated by his insurance. On his return no longer, they asked for a dismissal on economic grounds.
The Pouchus don’t hear it of this ear and decide to dismiss her for serious misconduct, with layoff immediate. Reason: the company accuses him of having spent 2,600 euros by phone during his stay american. However, “the only invoice presented by the company to the police amounted to 700 euros and corresponded to the entire fleet of the company, is 10 phones and an iPad,” says the ex-employee taken advantage of that challenged the sudden breach of his contract of employment tribunals.
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The changes of companies have put in alert the administration. In November 2015, a search takes place at the agency. Employees are asked to leave, the records are seized and Pouchus are put in custody. At the hearing, we learn that in fact, since 2013, the actions of the managers are closely monitored by the police following a mail from an employee against a transfer of bad assets.
In the midst of being routed, the leaders lead great train of life
Another incongruity: while executives say their employees do not pay wages, they lead great train of life. Visit to Chile, the discovery of the Quebec hit nights deluxe hotel, 5 weeks in the boat to the South Pole to Sir, a stay of 3 weeks in Martinique in the family in the midst of winding up by the court…
READ ALSO >> made Redundant nine years ago, they must repay a portion of their compensation April 26, 2016, the company’s Curiosity is Beautiful farm closed its doors. Ruined, Madam risk 4 years in prison, of which 2 with a sentence and a 10 000 € fine, Sir, 3 years of prison of which 18 months assorted a suspended sentence and $ 8,000 fine, with, for both, the final prohibition to manage a business. The Verdict on January 18, 2018.
* at the request of the family names of the employees do not appear.
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Sabine and Romaric, on the other hand, go to the prud’hommes in April of next year. “We ask for 50 000 euros of repairs, they say, even if no amount of money will be able to fill such a trauma.”
* at the request of the family names of the employees do not appear.