France’s newly appointed well being minister is underneath investigation for accepting undeclared luxurious items whereas working as a pharmacist.
Agnès Firmin Le Bodo is suspected of getting acquired over €20,000 price of undisclosed items between 2015 and 2020, when she was working as a pharmacist in Normandy, based on an investigation by French web site Mediapart.
In response to the outlet, she acquired 21 deliveries of luxurious merchandise — together with watches, bottles of champagne, smartphones and a tv —over the years in query from Urgo laboratories, which she didn’t declare. The guts of the case hinges on France’s anti-gift legal guidelines that impose transparency guidelines over each corporations giving presents and professionals receiving them.
Authorities opened a judicial investigation in June 2023, and a listening to is scheduled for January 2024.
Le Bodo’s spokesperson informed Mediapart that she ”will solely reply to the competent authorities” throughout January’s listening to.
The investigation is a part of a wider inquiry into unlawful industrial practices by Urgo laboratories, which reportedly provided greater than €55 million euros in items to pharmacists all through the nation between 2015 and 2021, Mediapart reported. Urgo was convicted in January 2023 for breaching the anti-gift regulation.
Le Bodo took on the position of well being minister on Wednesday, after former Well being Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned over the nation’s controversial immigration invoice.