Local authority officials suspected of embezzling public funds
Louis Mussington had been taken into custody and questioned in January as part of an investigation into the misappropriation of public funds. Several officials from the Collectivité have since been questioned, and the President was taken into custody once again on 28 April.
The first police custody incident in January concerned several jobs awarded to some of the president of the Collectivité’s associates since his election in 2022. Louis Mussington had then defended himself in a statement: “This questioning forms part of a procedure initiated in 2023, following a letter sent to the public prosecutor by four members of the opposition concerning the recruitment conditions of several staff members. ” The President had stated that it was not possible at this stage of the investigation to go into detail about the matters under scrutiny and had said he was “fully prepared to answer all the investigators’ questions, in a spirit of transparency and absolute respect for the institutions”. The Basse-Terre public prosecutor’s office, for its part, stated that the investigation had been opened on grounds of “misappropriation of public funds” and “illegal taking of interest”. On Tuesday 28 April, the President of the Collectivité was taken into custody once again, along with the four vice-presidents, Alain Richardson, Bernadette Davis, Dominique Louisy and Michel Petit, who were questioned on several matters, including the fleet of leased cars and the inaccuracy of the Collectivité’s budget. After several hours of questioning by the gendarmerie, they were released from custody. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has not announced any formal charges at this stage of the investigation, but has indicated that a criminal response to these cases will be provided in the coming weeks.
