Parisian Lawyer Antoine Vey Investigated for Workplace Harassment

Parisian lawyer Antoine Vey, former partner of Éric Dupond-Moretti, is the subject of a preliminary investigation for moral harassment at work, a source close to the investigation said on Saturday, confirming information from Release. He denies it, criticizing “a media campaign”.

These investigations, entrusted on January 19 to the Brigade for the Repression of Delinquency against the Person (BRDP) of the Paris judicial police, follow the complaint of a former employee, for facts from 2017 and 2018.

“Antoine spent his time manipulating us”

This complaint, “filed five years after the person left the firm, has absolutely no basis,” Me Antoine Vey reacted to AFP on Saturday.

“In a practice, long hours are classic. The problem was the atmosphere was so noxious,” the complainant told AFP on condition of anonymity. “We were always at fault, Antoine spent his time manipulating us, giving orders then counter-orders, yelling.” “I couldn’t take it so much anymore that I resigned after nine months,” she continued. What followed were “three years of extremely deep depression” which she attributed to these working conditions.

At the time, the lawyer was associated with Éric Dupond-Moretti, who became Minister of Justice in July 2020.

“Harm my business”

The “sole purpose” of this complaint “is to fuel a media campaign, carefully orchestrated, aimed at harming my activity and my office,” criticized Me Vey.

It comes less than a year after the publication of an article in the newspaper Libération, which collected around twenty testimonies from former or current colleagues in his office denouncing actions or comments experienced as moral or sexual harassment.

“I will not allow myself to be done, especially since this action comes from a colleague to whom I reached out, notably by hiring her at the firm when she was going through a tragic period,” lamented Me again. Vey. The plaintiff was hired after the loss of her husband, whom the lawyer knew.

“Antoine says that my moral exhaustion comes from the death of my husband, but he presented himself as a savior and took advantage of my psychological and financial distress,” she believes.

A resignation SMS from the complainant mentions, in an affectionate tone, “personal reasons”, according to elements of which the AFP was aware. “I had not yet completed my notice period. “That’s always what we say at that time,” she told AFP on Saturday.

“I was leaving to save my skin, my health couldn’t take it anymore, I wasn’t going to write an angry message,” continues the lawyer, who hopes that the criminal investigation will allow for “virtuous housekeeping” in her profession marked by recent trials for moral and sexual harassment.

The conclusions of a disciplinary procedure still awaited

Before the investigations at the BRDP, the Paris bar had received several reports targeting Me Vey and launched an ethics investigation in January 2023. This led, at the end of December, to a disciplinary procedure, the conclusions of which have not yet been rendered, according to a source close to the matter.

It also made it possible to return to the handrail filed in April by a former employee, who said he had been seriously threatened by Me Vey. “If I learn that you spoke to Libération, I’ll pay a guy to put a bullet between your eyes,” the lawyer allegedly told him.

The Order considered that this employee demonstrated “a certain duplicity” because he maintained, at the same time, exchanges of support with Me Vey, indicated another source close to the case. Contacted, the Order did not wish to comment.

2024-02-11 00:32:20
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