The funds from the destabilization operation targeting Gilles Artigues, first deputy and rival of mayor Gaël Perdriau, would have passed through an association which received a grant of 20,000 euros from the town hall.
The intimate video blackmail affair which has shaken the Saint-Etienne town hall for more than a year is taking a new turn with the involvement of two local figures. Philippe Buil, a 59-year-old artist, and his wife Chantal Sabatier, were indicted for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds” and “breach of trust”. This indictment, dated December 7, places the couple at the heart of the investigation into the scandal which shook the municipality.
The association Artistes de la Galerie Art Pluriel (AGAP), led by Sabatier and her husband, is suspected of being a channel to remunerate the authors of the sex tape which targeted Gilles Artigues, first deputy and rival of mayor Gaël Perdriau. The Lyon public prosecutor’s office cites serious and consistent evidence implicating the couple in the illicit financing of the blackmail operation.
Revelations dating back to August 2022
The revelations of this affair date back to August 2022, when Mediapart published an article revealing an intimate video dating from January 2015, involving Gilles Artigues. This revelation led to a series of investigations and indictments, including that of Mayor Gaël Perdriau himself.
The alleged perpetrator of this blackmail, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, claimed to have acted at the request of the mayor and his entourage to neutralize Artigues. Rossary-Lenglet suggests that the funds for this operation came from fictitious services invoiced to associations, including AGAP, which received a grant of 20,000 euros from the town hall four months after its creation in March 2015.
Mayor Gaël Perdriau at the heart of the investigation
Gaël Perdriau, 51, is under the status of “assisted witness” for “embezzlement of public funds”. Despite his exclusion from the Les Républicains party and the accusations, he refused to resign from his elective functions, contenting himself with temporarily withdrawing from the management of the metropolis.
The matter became even more complicated at the end of September, with the broadcast of a new recording by Rossary-Lenglet. The latter reveals a blackmail plan dating from June 2015 against former mayor Michel Thiollière, involving the use of an underage prostitute. In response, the Lyon public prosecutor’s office extended its investigation to these new elements.