Former Areva boss Anne Lauvergeon was indicted on May 16 for the offense of obstruction in the accounting section of the legal case on the 2007 acquisition of the mining company Uramin, we learned Tuesday from sources close to the case and the legal system.
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” This supplementary indictment (…) is a new illustration of the judicial errors in this 15-year-old case “, denounced to the AFP Me Fanny Colin, lawyer of Anne Lauvergeon. She denounces the ” multiple inconsistencies” in the case and “an irremediable contradiction which establishes the futility of the accusation brought “. This new indictment The decision of the former head of Areva comes after six years of appeals to the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation, following a divergent reading of the case between the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF) and the investigating judges.
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In this so-called accounting case, the former chairwoman of the board of directors (2001-2010) of Areva (now Orano) was already being prosecuted for presenting inaccurate accounts and disseminating misleading information. Ms. Lauvergeon and other former executives of the nuclear giant are suspected of having presented inaccurate accounts to hide the collapse in the value of Uramin. This Canadian mining company, which owns three uranium deposits in Africa was bought for 1.8 billion euros by Areva in 2007. Faced with difficulties in exploiting deposits and a lower than expected uranium content, Areva was forced to make heavy provisions in 2011, a few months after the departure of Anne Lauvergeon.
Uramin acquisition already tainted by indictments for fraud and corruption
Two judicial investigations have been opened since 2015 on the acquisition of Uramin: one for fraud and corruption during the acquisition, the other on the provisions recorded by Areva. In 2017, the investigating judges announced that they were closing the accounting section, but the PNF requested additional prosecutions, in particular for obstructing the mission of the auditors. It considered that managers had concealed crucial information in order to obtain certification of the group’s accounts. After a legal battle, the investigating chamber ruled in favor of the PNF in June 2022 and the following year the Court of Cassation rejected the defense’s appeals.
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The investigating judge in charge of this case therefore proceeded between January and May with the requested indictments of Anne Lauvergeon, her right-hand man at the time Gérard Arbola, Sébastien de Montessus, former manager of the mining subsidiary, its financial director Nicolas Nouveau and Alain-Pierre Raynaud, former financial director of the group. Only a former director of financial management escaped prosecution. The magistrate considered that there was not sufficient evidence against him, according to his lawyer Martin Reynaud and the judicial source.