A few weeks before Roland-Garros (from May 28 to June 11), the French Tennis Federation (FFT) is not leaving the zone of turbulence. A complaint was filed against X at the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), Thursday, March 16, for “embezzlement of property” and “corruption” within the FFT.
The seven plaintiffs are mainly leaders or former leaders of the FFT, including Alain Moreau (current president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine league), Pascal Da Costa (member of the Superior Council of Tennis) and Stéphane Thomann (former president of the Upper Rhine).
They accuse the president of the FFT, Gilles Moretton, elected on February 13, 2021, and two of his relatives, Hughes Cavallin, his former chief of staff, and Jean-Luc Barrière, general treasurer of the FFT, of having ” organized the diversion of Roland-Garros tournament tickets to the detriment of the FFT”. And to be “exonerated from the consequences of their misdeeds” since their accession to the highest authorities of the federation, ” by means of new abuses of their functions”.
While the complaint is currently being analyzed by the PNF, Anticor, an anti-corruption association approved by Matignon for the exercise of civil party rights, filed, according to information from Mediapart, confirmed by The worlda report to the PNF, Friday 24 March.
Misappropriation of tickets “premium”
In this report, of which The world became aware, Anticor reports alleged misappropriation of public property by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes league (AURA), chaired from 2018 to 2021 by Mr. Moretton, and by the Paris Committee, led by Mr. Barrière, “accused of having sold forty tickets for a total amount of 5,370 euros during the 2019 edition of the Roland-Garros tournament to the company AS Events, a company specializing in the organization of events”including the companion of Mr. Cavallin “holds 50% of the shares”.
However, the rules of the FFT authorize the leagues to resell the tickets they acquire only in reduced numbers and only “to manage their public relations”. “By initialing partnership agreements relating in particular to the disposal of these tickets by partners of the AURA league, Mr. Moretton diverted these goods from their purpose, regardless of the fact that he did not personally receive the amount of the sale of these tickets », writes Anticor. Which specifies that the offense of “embezzlement of public property” which can be attributed to Gilles Moretton “could also be attributable to the Paris Committee, and through it, to its president”Jean-Luc Barrière.
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