“Faced with the inertia of public powers”The Anticor association announced, on Tuesday, November 12, that it had filed a complaint in Paris for fraud and misappropriation of public funds against the private daycare group People & Baby, highlighted in an investigation by journalist Víctor Castanet.
“We felt it was necessary to act”explained Paul Cassia, president of the anti-corruption association, during a press conference Tuesday morning in Paris. “The starting point of this matter is Víctor Castanet’s book on the management of a company that manages private daycare centers”People and Baby, he continued.
In his research book The ogres (Flammarion), published in mid-September, the investigative journalist described the “voracity” of certain private daycare groups and, in particular, the People & Baby group. “Public authorities remained silent” AND, “However, this scandal concerns issues of child abuse but also labor law”according to Mr. Cassia.
The association’s lawyer, M.my Vincent Brengarth, detailed the different qualifications to which the complaint is directed “in the particular context of these daycare centers that benefit (…) public aid from the State » and the “lack of childcare places”.
Scams and embezzlement of public funds
Anticor first accused People & Baby of various scams and misappropriation of public funds, in particular that of “of the subsidy paid for partial unemployment” during the Covid-19 epidemic, having used this device while “At least 300 executives would have continued working”according to m.my Brengarth.
Other crimes are alleged, “relating to the falsification of the real presence of children placed in day care centers”which triggers public aid, or fraud in work aid, according to the lawyer.
Finally, Anticor mentions a possible abuse of social property due to the multiple functions of the former founder and president, Christophe Durieux, who managed People & Baby but also real estate companies that rented premises to the group’s nurseries, according to M.my Brengarth, “possible rent overpricing”. The amount of money embezzled would be “at least 2.1 million euros, a figure that only refers to the fraud of partial unemployment aid”said. “Despite the seriousness of the conduct revealed by Víctor Castanet, at this point there has still been no self-referral to the courts or an investigative initiative despite all the misconduct revealed. This questions us to the highest point”he insisted, calling for an investigation.
METROmy Brengarth expressed hope that a possible procedure for “other operators” private daycares “Who could perfectly well be worried”even to “impacts that these behaviors may have had on the treatment of the children”.
“Democratic consequences”
Next to daycare centers “high quality, backed by deep educational thinking”we also find “very poor quality establishments”noted the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) in a report published after the death of an 11-month-old baby in a private nursery in Lyon in 2022.
For Inès Bernard, general delegate of Anticor, these crimes “they have democratic and social consequences that are sometimes extremely important (…). The question arises of the granting of so many subsidies without any control”.
The global workshops
Online courses, evening classes, workshops: develop your skills
Discover
Currently, France has 460,000 collective daycare places, of which 50% in public daycares, 27% in private daycares (Les Petits Chaperons rouge, Babilou, La Maison bleue, People & Baby, etc.) and 23% in associative nurseries.
In a press release sent to Agence France-Presse in mid-September, People & Baby – from which Christophe Durieux was expelled in the spring – stated that “the practices described in the work” by Mr. Castañuela “They are totally out of step with the values we have today”. The group’s new management claimed to have “a profound transformation began” with a new president, and promised to correct “immediately” All “malfunction that could be identified”. “Independent audits” will be created and the group “ [va s’]engaged[er] report transparently on the actions implemented and their monitoring”added People and Baby.
