This could compromise his political ambitions for the municipal elections of 2026. Philippe Doucet (PS) is referred to the Paris Criminal Court in September 2023 for embezzlement of public funds, illegal taking of interests and favouritism. Mayor of Argenteuil from 2008 to 2014 (but also a deputy from 2012 to 2017), he was indicted in 2019 for having entrusted the market for the municipal magazine to one of his relatives from the Socialist Party, without going through a call from offers. He is also accused of having extended the contract of a member of his cabinet… who had stopped working for him.
The investigation began in September 2009, when the Légitimes Dépenses association reported to the public prosecutor the sums incurred by the municipality to publish “L’Argenteuillais”, the weekly municipal magazine. The association had reported that this mission had been entrusted to the company Les Argonautes, directed by Alain Assouline, elected in Bouffémont, member of the PS and friend of Philippe Doucet. However, this company had worked on the campaign of the latter during the municipal elections of 2008 and the cantonal elections of 2009.
A contract worth 215,000 euros
The investigators discovered that the town hall of Argenteuil had remunerated Les Argonautes for a total amount of 214,725 euros between May 2008 and November 2009. In exchange, Alain Assouline’s company indicates that it carried out creation, design and development missions. accompaniment and support for the writing of the magazine. However, beyond 206,000 euros, the municipality should have issued a call for tenders with competitive bidding. In addition, Les Argonautes also worked for the Argenteuil-Bezons urban community in 2009, when it was chaired by Philippe Doucet. This contract was also awarded without a call for tenders, but the ceiling was respected because the expenditure amounted to 72,000 euros.
Philippe Doucet is also suspected of having granted a fictitious job to an employee of the town hall of Argenteuil. On this aspect of the case, it was Georges Mothron (LR) who had filed several complaints, after having found in April 2014 the mayor’s chair which he had occupied from 2001 to 2008. He had noticed that Denis Q ., attached to the office of the mayor, benefited from a CDD renewed in January 2014 for one year, while he had no element to note the reality of the work carried out. The town hall stopped paying him his salary of 3,684.16 euros net in the summer of 2014. The person concerned contested this decision and ended up reimbursing the sums unduly received. He then admitted that he had stopped working for the town hall at the end of 2013.
Hired in February 2010 by the town hall as a communications officer, Denis Q. had previously worked for Les Argonautes as editor-in-chief of the municipal magazine. He said he stopped working for Philippe Doucet following a dispute at the end of 2013 related to the municipal election campaign. He would have been told that he could therefore stay at home since he was no longer involved in the campaign.
“I did not perceive any direct or indirect advantage”
Faced with this referral to the correctional court, Philippe Doucet says he is determined to defend himself. “I will probably be condemned for having exceeded the threshold of the markets for a few hundred euros”, he anticipates. But he assures that no one had warned him that he had to carry out a call for tenders. To investigators, he said he wanted to set up the new municipal magazine very soon after his election. And that’s why he wanted to call on the Argonauts in a transitional logic, before internalizing the production of the publication.
“I dispute with the greatest firmness the two other offenses for which I am prosecuted”, he indicates. He denies having gained anything by choosing Alain Assouline’s company. “Obviously, I did not perceive any direct or indirect advantage in this market, which had the sole objective of launching the newspaper Argenteuil, to which the inhabitants have shown their attachment, ”he said in our columns in 2019.
As for the charges of embezzlement of public funds, he replied that he was not aware that Denis Q. had ceased his functions, monopolized by his re-election. He added that he could not be held responsible for the salaries that were paid to this collaborator after April 2014, because he no longer exercised his mandate as mayor. Philippe Doucet will have the opportunity to detail his arguments before the Paris Criminal Court in September. “I ardently wish for this audience,” he says. Alain Assouline did not wish to answer our questions.
