Asset statement: the former minister Cayeux in the spotlight of an investigation into the cost of his assets

Former minister Caroline Cayeux has been in the crosshairs since December 5 of a preliminary investigation following a report by the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) on her assets, the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP on Wednesday. . World.

Suspicion of incomplete declaration and money laundering

The investigation has been open since December 5 for incomplete or misleading asset declaration to the HATVP and tax fraud laundering, and is entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Crimes (BRDE), said the prosecutor.

The HATVP had indicated at the end of November that it had taken legal action, suspecting a “false evaluation” of the assets of the former Delegate Minister for Local Authorities, in particular with regard to a 210 m² Parisian apartment, and “tax fraud” .

The High Authority had mentioned in a press release “significant reductions in the value of his property”, his main residence in Paris and a house located in Ille-et-Vilaine, “of approximately half the total value of these two assets” . “She couldn’t ignore fair value,” the HATVP said.

Reasons questioned by the former minister

Following the revelations on the subject, Caroline Cayeux had resigned from her post as Minister of Territorial Collectives “so as not to hinder the Government’s action”. She then challenged the HATVP appraisal and claimed to have made a corrective declaration of her assets “taking into account the observations” of the High Authority, which had alerted her when she made her assets declaration as mayor of Beauvais in 2021..

Why “such sudden media coverage (…) despite the fact that the investigation has been going on for several months without any new elements?” Myriam Mayel, one of Caroline Cayeux’s lawyers, asked me.

“The aforementioned classification of money laundering for an investment operation or concealment of a hypothetical tax fraud is perfectly aberrational, since Caroline Cayeux never hid the least of her assets,” added her other lawyer, Me Édouard de Lamaze. “Such mergers as well as the incessant media communication are totally excessive and never cease to surprise for a simple real estate appraisal case,” the two lawyers believe.