Jacques Bouthier, indicted for child sexual abuse and rape, is accused of being at the center of the organization of human trafficking. The ex-CEO of Assu 2000 is sleeping in prison.
“Trafficking in human beings against a minor”, “rape of a minor over the age of 15”, “use of prostitution by a minor” and “sexual assault on a minor under the age of 15”. Here are the charges brought by the investigating judges who indicted Jacques Bouthier, the CEO of the insurance group Assu 2000 (renamed Vilavi in January 2022). Jacques Bouthier was placed in pre-trial detention on Saturday May 21, AFP learned on Monday, confirming information from RTL. Five other people were indicted and imprisoned in this case, for “criminal conspiracy to commit the crime of kidnapping and sequestration in an organized gang and possession of child pornography images”.
These decisions follow a preliminary investigation opened in mid-March 2022. Since his revelations, Jacques Bouthier has been forced to resign from his responsibilities and his mandate as president. “The Vilavi group takes note of the announcement of the resignation of Jacques Bouthier from his term of office as chairman, and of all his activities and responsibilities within the company”, soberly indicated the group’s management in a press release, affirming that the operational management was “provided by the team in place”.
Where does this business start? According to Agence France Presse and the radio, which cite sources close to the case, it was in March that a 22-year-old woman presented herself to the Paris police accusing Jacques Bouthier of holding her “captive” for five years in an apartment where, according to his testimony, he raped her. She then described her brutality and indicated that the businessman had demanded of her to participate in this slave trade which is taking shape behind these accusations: having become “too old for him“, she would have been responsible for finding her a “replacement”: according to her version of the facts, a 14-year-old girl would then have settled in her place in the same apartment, to undergo the same harsh treatment. The 22-year-old woman managed to film the man and the young girl together in bed and gave the video to the police.
According to information from RTL, the investigators established the possibility that seven women, minors or young adults, could have succeeded each other in the apartment used by Jacques Bouthier. The work of the police “made it possible to determine that they were young girls with similar profiles: idle or runaways, at odds with their family or society”, adds the media.
RTL reports that investigators also suspect Jacques Bouthier of trying to silence the young complainant who finally came forward to the police. A team would have been put in place to recover the incriminating video and force the young woman to leave France. Investigators suspect Jacques Bouvier of having solicited his own wife for this, as well as two employees of his company, a young woman close to the complainant and a former gendarme who was a member of the GIGN, a service specializing in delicate interventions.
A preliminary investigation was therefore opened in March following this testimony. Last Saturday, Jacques Bouthier and his five accomplices were indicted and remanded in custody. The investigation is currently entrusted to the brigade for the protection of minors of the Paris judicial police.
The indicted man was previously known to have made a fortune in the business world. At a very young age, he started as an entrepreneur in the oil industry, taking his first steps with the company Trapil, in charge of the Le Havre-Paris pipeline. While he was aiming for social advancement in his company, his lack of a diploma, financial situation and training hindered him from obtaining a better position or a promotion: he therefore resigned to embark on insurance. In 1975, he created his company in a wooden bungalow, in a small outgrowth of the land of his house which he bought on credit.
“I did not go to higher education. With my baccalaureate in hand, I joined a preparatory class before going directly to the job market. I lived in the suburbs of Paris and I am the son of divorced parents . My mother never earned anything other than the Smic and therefore encouraged me to enter the professional world. This is how I started my career in oil,” he said. a few years ago at the magazine Entrepreneurial Dynamics.
At 28, he launched his company Assu 2000, an insurance brokerage group. We are in 1975, and the company has only a few employees. In fact, notoriety came gradually, as he explained in an interview for the magazine Undertake. The members of Assu 2000 present themselves as experts in insurance and loans dedicated to individuals. As for Jacques Bouthier, he first took care of promotional communication and classic brokerage to attract customers to the shop he bought near his home, in the 93. Then, his structure extended to other regions: after Ile-de-France, the North, then Lyon, before also setting up in the South, around Marseille.
Launched thanks to numerous face-to-face consultations, the production of Assu 2000 was then developed on the Internet, with the pure players Euro-Assurances and Assuréo, two brokers specializing in two-wheelers. Twenty years after its creation, the company passes the bar of 100 points of sale. Now renamed Vivali, it has hundreds of shops in the insurance sector in France.
It was in 2005 that Jacques Bouthier entered the ranking of the 500 greatest fortunes in France. With his company Assu 2000, which today represents 163 million euros in turnover, he reigns over the world of insurance. The figures are staggering: with 19 companies, including AB Courtage and Vousfinancer and 1,800 employees, there are nearly 550,000 insured customers. He remained in the top fortunes of France until 2021: in 2020, the magazine Challenges ranked him in its ranking of the main fortunes of France, in 487th place.