This Tuesday, October 18, a territorial employee of the regional council was placed in police custody, as part of the investigation into the blackmail case on intimate videos.
Laurent Wauquiez’s cabinet also confirmed the “Researchthis Tuesday morning, from business premises“ of this project manager at the Youth and Sport Department of the local authority.
Gaël Perdriau was expelled by the Republicans last week, after a series of revelations by Mediapart about sextape blackmail targeting its former first centrist deputy Gilles Artigues.
Accused by his former first deputy, placed in police custody in mid-September, cited in overwhelming audio recordings published by Mediapart, the mayor of Saint Etienne has he always protested his innocence. But it was forced to retire of his executive functions as mayor and president of the metropolis of Saint-Étienne.
Project manager for Samy Kéfi-Jérôme
The employee placed in police custody on Tuesday was assigned to Saint-Etienne regional councilor Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, also involved in this case of alleged blackmail to the intimate video, dating back to January 2015, when he was a municipal school assistant.
The city of Saint-Etienne intends “become a civil party in the context of the open judicial investigation” on the financial side of the case, according to a “expulsion order” of the mayor.
The expulsion order aims at “prevent a situation of potential conflict of interest in the management of this procedure” and the mayor undertakes to do so stay away from any resulting action or information.
The economic aspect concerns the fictitious services billed to two local cultural associations subsidized by the municipality that one of the protagonists of the blackmail claims to have received for this “fouling of good manners”.
