The Alexander Stavisky Affair
The main party involved in the trial, which opened in November 1935, has been dead for almost two years: “Alexander Stavisky committed suicide with a bullet fired from 3 meters. What it's like to have a long arm", headlined The Chained Duck (Le Canard enchaîné).
This high-profile crook, protected by his connections in the parliamentary world and the press, has embezzled millions. His cronies are being judged here, but the judges must proceed with caution, as the case has assumed the proportions of a state affair. The commission charged with investigating the case failed to bury it for the sake of the time she spent there. After months and months of questioning and investigations with the accomplices of the swindler, his protectors, leading circles of politics to those of finance, she ends up transmitting the file to the court of judgment, the court of assize of the Seine.
In the absence of the main culprit, Alexander Stavisky, found dead trying to reach Switzerland, the judges have to be satisfied with those who assisted him. And there are many defendants in a box that has become too narrow. The 60 or so lawyers can't all sit down! The president of the court, Judge Barnaud, is perfectly aware that this is an exceptional trial: Attorney General Fernand-Roux is assisted by Advocates General Cassagneau and Gaudel, very important figures in the bar; the file, huge, sits in a corner of the courtroom; it takes three hours to read the indictment; three weeks for questioning; and five more to hear witnesses ...
Embezzlement in Orléans and Bayonne
The case the jurors have to decide on is a gigantic swindle: its instigator, Stavisky, is said to have embezzled 259 million francs - a considerable sum for the time - through his various activities, all equally fraudulent. Among the most successful and profitable cases, the Orléans and Bayonne scams are the first to be dealt with by the court. The Crédit municipal d´Orléans affair was brought up by the interrogation of the former director of the establishment, a man named Desbrosses. Thanks to a shell company, Établissements Alex, Stavisky obtained loans from this banking institution: 22 million francs in a single year! A stock of emeralds was supposed to secure the loan. These, supposedly subject to expertise and of exceptional provenance - they would have belonged, in biblical times, to the Queen of Sheba! -, are, in fact, synthetic stones, as revealed by their purchase invoices.
The Crédit municipal de Bayonne case, more recent since it broke out in December 1933 and put an end to Stavisky's career, was dealt with after that of the Crédit d´Orléans. It is no less incredible. Tissier, former director of the establishment, appears at the bar: he is accused of having multiplied the fakes, thus embezzling 200 million francs by deceiving the savers. In Orleans, a general, among other senior figures, had covered the Stavisky scam. In Bayonne, too, there are notables to be involved in the business. In the event, Garat, mayor of the city, also protected the dubious businessman.
Complicity in all circles
After the appearance of those mainly responsible for the embezzlement of Orléans and Bayonne, the court hears those who either received funds from Stavisky or participated in the concealment of the embezzled money. And, again, these are prominent people: former Stavisky lawyers, such as Master Bonnaure; a former radical deputy; newspaper directors (Camille Aymard, or Darius). The proliferation of well-known names is troubling the court and the audience as well as public opinion, informed by the press. So would all those who matter in France have bathed in the Stavisky affair ? Soon, the hearings again reveal, not only additional names, but also all the implicit complicity that benefited either Stavisky or his accomplices: the magistrates of the financial section of the prosecution have difficulty in explaining their slowness, their silences, and the suspicious death of a senior official involved in the affair, the Prince adviser, further adds to the sordid situation ...
Among the police officers in charge of the investigation, the court also highlights a lot of questionable behavior. After the notables and the civil servants, are judged the most prominent politicians involved in the scam. They are former radicals: journalists, more than ever, are flocking to hear them. Dalimier, the former Minister of Labor, who recommended the fake Bayonne bonds, and then Camille Chautemps, former president of the Council, are thus indicted. Expiatory victims, they are delivered to justice so that other people may be spared. On January 15, 1936, the forty pleadings are completed.
After the deliberations, Garat, Desbrosses and Tissier - in particular - are declared guilty of complicity and the use of forgery. Some others are for concealment. The journalists, friends and proteges of Stavisky, are for the most part acquitted. Two days later, the president of the court delivers his verdict. The penalties are particularly heavy: thus Tissier is sentenced to seven years of hard labor, Garat to two years in prison, the other penalties varying between these two extremes ...
The Republic shaken by scandals
During the 1930s, the Third Republic was shaken by politico-financial affairs which compromised certain elected officials and ministers. The series begins with the Gazette du Franc affair (1928). It continues with that of the Oustric bank (November 1930), a fraudulent bankruptcy, which causes the fall of the government of André Tardieu, whose Keeper of the Seals, Raoul Péret, is accused of corruption. Finally comes the Alexander Stavisky affair, which particularly compromises the Radical Party.
The discredited republic. These cases, to which the press gives considerable publicity, feed the anti-parliamentarianism of the extreme right circles, which liken the entire political class to a den of brigands. The veterans' leagues, the royalists of Action Française, for example, come to condemn en bloc a regime in which they see an association of Jewish financiers, Freemasons and radical politicians - all abusive terms in their mouths.
