Manufactured
The prosecutor of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), Elian Houlette, is not married to Thierry Aulagnon, director of the office of the Minister for Economics and Finance, contrary to a rumor that has gone viral on social media.
(Translation: ‘The leaks. Will the press say: Mrs. Houlette is president of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office and the wife of the director of Sapin’s cabinet.’)
The 64-year-old prosecutor is being accused of collusion with the government, due to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) having decided to investigate the suspicion of fictitious jobs given to French presidential candidate François Fillon’s family members.
However, this rumor of a marriage between Mrs. Houlette and French Finance Minister Michel Sapin’s office director is false. Indeed, Thierry Aulagnon is the husband of Maryse Aulagnon, CEO of the real-estate group Affine.
One web user who spread the false information has since rectified her tweet, but only by publishing another false message. She claims the existence of an affair between “a judge of the PNF [National Financial Prosecutor’s Office]” and “a director of (Michel) Sapin’s office”, but the prosecutor mentioned this time is Ariane Amson, who no longer works for the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office but for the Elysée Palace, and her husband Pierre Heilbronn, who no longer works for the Ministry of Finance, but for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
(Translation: ‘Error! The PNF judge whose husband is the deputy director of the Sapin cabinet is: Ariane Amson. Collusion is alive and well!’)
Eliane Houlette, ex-general attorney of Paris, was nominated prosecutor of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in 2014, by decree of the French President after a decision by the high council of the judiciary. Since 2012 the current government has committed to following the judiciary’s proposals for the nominations of PNF prosecutors. The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office was created following the Cahuzac scandal. Last December, Mrs Houlette came in person to lodge a claim against ex-minister François Hollande, who was condemned in the first instance to three years in jail in a case of tax fraud.
