The minister responsible for early childhood, Agnès Canayer, announced, on Friday, November 29, that she had contacted the prosecutor following the revelations of Victor Castanet’s investigation which denounces, in particular, the practices of the private daycare group People & Baby.
Published in mid-September, the book The ogres by Victor Castañuela “showed unacceptable abuse, abuse with real consequences for children”stressed Agnès Canayer on Radio J. “These abuses are today well documented and that is why we have transmitted the facts to the Paris prosecutor, through article 40, so that an investigation can be carried out”he added.
The seizure essentially refers to the complaints contained in Victor Castanet’s book, relating to the financial optimization practices of the People & Baby group, as reported by the Minister’s entourage to Agence France-Presse. Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires “any public official who, in the exercise of his or her duties, becomes aware of a crime or misdemeanor” grab “immediately” justice.
An open investigation
Víctor Castanet’s investigation has highlighted the abuses committed by certain private daycare groups, in particular People & Baby, which allegedly falsified, among other things, the number of hours the babies were present in order to receive money from the CIF.
The group, whose founder and president, Christophe Durieux, was removed from office in the spring, reacted by saying that “the practices described in the work” were “totally out of step with values” used today.
Furthermore, in mid-November the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation following the filing of a complaint by the anti-corruption association Anticor against People & Baby, in particular for embezzlement of public funds and fraud.
