A whistleblower wins an important victory in court

On February 1, the Court of Cassation handed down a decision that strengthened the protection of whistleblowers who have suffered reprisals from their employers and reaffirmed the whistleblowers’ protection regime by allowing them to bring a case before the interim relief judge and obtain a rapid judicial decision. > Read article

Elon Musk found not guilty of fraud following tweets about Tesla

Following the investors’ lawsuit against Tesla’s CEO for misleading Tweets about his intention to withdraw his group from the stock market in 2018, a Californian jury declared the multi-entrepreneur not guilty of fraud on Friday, February 3. The judge in charge initially concluded that the tweets were misleading and that the entrepreneur had acted “irresponsibly. However, the jurors concluded that the tweets had not artificially inflated the stock and had little or no effect on the plaintiffs. > Read article

Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labor suspected of “favoritism”, denies any arrangement with a French water giant

The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) charged the Minister of Labor with  “favoritism” for two lithographs by painter Gérard Garouste that he received as gifts from the water treatment group SAUR when he was Mayor of Annonay. This gift exchange took place around a public contract dated 2009-2010 that Olivier Dussopt failed to declare to the deontologist of the National Assembly. > Read article

François Grosdidier, mayor of Metz, sentenced to six months suspended sentence for “illegal acquisitions of interests”

On Tuesday, February 7, the Epinal correctional court sentenced the mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, to six months suspended imprisonment and a €10,000 fine for “illegal acquisitions of interests” for a €160,000 subsidy he gave to the Valeurs Ecologie Association in 2011, when he was a member of parliament. The former parliamentarian used funds from his parliamentary reserve to subsidy the Association, which he chaired since 2009. The court also sentenced the former treasurer of the Association, to two months of suspended imprisonment and a fine of €2,000 for concealing this illegal transaction. > Read article

Prison sentences and five years legal practice ban requested against the two lawyers of a drug trafficker

On Thursday, February 2, in front of a room full of criminal lawyers who came to support their colleagues, the prosecutor requested three and two years of imprisonment, and a temporary disqualification from practicing law against two leading members of the Paris Bar, for having unknowingly transmitted to the court false documents in defense of their client, the drug trafficker Robert Dawes, who was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for drug trafficking. Deliberation is on April 18. > Read article