On 14 February 2024, shock took place at the administrative headquarters of Paris-Saint-Germain in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine). Agents from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF) and the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) entered the imposing building, nicknamed the “Factory”, to search it.
According to our information, PSG’s digital archives contain information on the “presidency”, “protocol” and “public relations” of the guest lists for the famous “VIP square”, the “box” or the “dry area” at the Parc des Princes for club matches.
One name catches their attention: that of the former Macronist deputy (2017-2022) of 15my Paris district, Hugues Renson, also former vice-president of the National Assembly (2017-2022). The researchers make their calculations and note that the former parliamentarian obtained, “on a personal basis”, 26 square squares, from 2017 to 2021. He also made “to benefit family members and a third party with a volume of 32 places”, “All these invitations represent a total of 58 places.”
These posts were obtained mainly – in addition to the help of PSG’s Qatari president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, known as NAK – from the club’s former communications director, Jean-Martial Ribes, who is accused of “corruption and influence peddling” as part of the judicial investigation into the shenanigans surrounding PSG and NAK.
“We’re going to stuff ourselves there for lunch!”
“We’re going to stuff ourselves there for lunch!” “, Renson writes to his former parliamentary colleague with whom he is preparing to benefit, in 2022, from invitations to the Parc du Parc.
On September 5, 2024, it was Mr. Renson’s turn to worry about the courts: he was charged with “ influence peddling by a person invested with an elective public mandate,” suspected of having received advantages and gifts from PSG, and of having abused his influence to allow the club to obtain favourable decisions from a public authority or administration.
Mr. Ribes’ privileged replacement on political and legislative issues relating to PSG, Mr. Renson also intervened when the former PSG director requested personal services, concerning, among other things, the procedure for acquiring French nationality and a passport for his wife of Moroccan origin, in October 2019.
“PSG is an intimate part of my activity, This big fan of the club declared in May during his police arrest, denying having done the slightest “service.” I have never received any compensation for my actions as an elected official. It is shameful to imagine and factually false. There was never any connection, consideration or dependency. » Questioned, his lawyer, Mario Stasi, stated that his client “He contests the charges against him in the strongest possible terms. He is determined to demonstrate, during these proceedings, that he has always acted within the scope of his mandate, without ever committing any unlawful act in the exercise of his functions. By virtue of a fundamental principle of our law, it is understood that he is presumed innocent.”
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