Caussade Lake: Patrick Franken and Serge Bousquet-Cassagne taken into custody; two members of CR 47 questioned in a voluntary hearing

The president of the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture and his predecessor are being questioned this Tuesday by the gendarmes of the Bordeaux Research Section, for, among other things, illegal taking of interests by public service mission.

New legal time for the CR 47 bosses. They did not come alone, but with the support of a support committee, to answer the investigators' questions. "We don't know exactly what we're accused of. But we're calm. Everything was done transparently." In front of the gates of the Agen gendarmerie, this Tuesday morning, May 20, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, former president of the Chamber of Agriculture, and Patrick Franken, his successor, showed no signs of concern. Both are being questioned by the gendarmes of the Bordeaux Research Section, under police custody, in connection with the construction of Lake Caussade, for illegal taking of interest in the performance of a public service mission and for the theft, misappropriation, or destruction of property from a public repository by the repository.

In addition to these police custody cases, two figures from the Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination are also being questioned in a voluntary hearing this Tuesday for breach of trust. They are Pascal Béteille, president of CR 47 at the time of the events, and Pierre Grotz, treasurer of the union.

Specifically, the president of the Chamber of Agriculture and his predecessor are expected today to explain not the financing of Lake Caussade, but the settlement of the financial penalties imposed in the January 2022 trial. As a reminder, they were jointly and severally fined €7,000, plus an additional €1,000 to be paid to each civil party. The Chamber of Agriculture, for its part, was ordered to pay a fine of €40,000, half of which was suspended. The gendarmes accuse them of having mobilized funds from the consular chamber and the union to pay these fines. This was done via deliberations, according to investigators, which were voted on secretly.