It was the time of the indictments yesterday at the Aristophil trial. For the public prosecutor, Gérard Lhéritier and the other defendants have continued to “Travesting the reality of the book and manuscripts market”multiplying fraudulent maneuvers at the expense of thousands of savers.
The public prosecutor first deconstructs the “Pretty story” of Aristophil – Democratize manuscripts – by seeing it as a promotional discourse full of omissions and ambiguities. The misleading commercial practices would be characterized: false information or likely to mislead (site touting 135,000 works, “expertise” nonexistent on massive lots, successive documents minimizing the risk …) and however central argument of the systematic redemption never guaranteed.
In addition, the organized impasse of joint ownership (illusory outing of hundreds of joint owners), the staging of seniority and respectability (1990 references, logos, university lawyer, notary, worldly events), raised valuations and out -of -market margins (for example the Romain Gary manuscript bought € 1.3 Contracts (counter letters, advances, opportunistic extensions).
The prosecution also retains, against Gérard Lhéritier and the accountant Denis Potier, the presentation of inaccurate accounts, and notes the abuse of corporate goods (manuscript Einstein-Besso bought via his company in Luxembourg, sold to Aristophil then placed in joint possession) and the breach of confidence.
For the organized gang scam, the public prosecutor underlines the existence of a structured group and a corpus of maneuvers (legal and notarial varnish, biased market studies), while noting that certain intermediaries have been themselves deceived.
The prosecution requested six years of firm imprisonment against Gérard Lhéritier, accompanied by a warrant of deposit, the confiscation of his assets and a fine of 60,000 euros, as well as a definitive prohibition to exercise and an ineligibility of five years. Denis Potier, the chartered accountant, faces four years’ imprisonment, one of which was suspended, a fine of 20,000 euros, a ban of ten years to exercise his profession and the seizure of his accounts, the public prosecutor also requesting a warrant of deposit against him.
For Jean-Jacques Daigre, lawyer and law professor, the prosecution requires two years in prison, six months suspended, a ban on exercising the profession of lawyer for five years and a fine of 20,000 euros, accompanied by an obligation to compensate victims. The notary Me Gautry would be exposed to two years in prison, including six months suspended, 20,000 euros fine and a compensation obligation, without professional ban due to his retirement. The Itard, Samson and Perronnet brokers are each of which are threatened by two years’ firm and 10,000 euros in fine, as well as the confiscation of their illicit gains, while the companies Art Courtage and Finestim should be deprived of more than two million and 807,000 euros (criminal seizures) respectively. Finally, Jean-Claude Vrain would benefit from the doubt and no conviction is required against him.
