The investigation into the misappropriation of Roland Garros tickets targeting the former president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) was closed in mid-February, a judicial source told AFP on Thursday. The investigations were launched in March 2016 to verify the conditions under which Jean Gachassin, then popular president of the FFT, had transferred tickets at cost price to a friend, director of a travel agency. This friend was suspected of having resold them at a significant margin in exchange for compensation (travel, meals, etc.) to Mr. Gachassin, said a source close to the matter. The same goes for two other women, who allegedly offered gifts to Mr. Gachassin, such as rugby tickets, according to the same source.
After seven years of investigation, searches and free hearings, Mr. Gachassin, suspected of embezzlement of public or private funds and passive corruption, was the subject of a classification without further action “at the end of a phase contradictory,” confirmed the judicial source. “This classification notice allows Jean Gachassin and those close to him to re-establish the truth about facts which have damaged his image and reputation while he has always been devoted to projects of public interest in the sector. sportsman,” reacted his lawyer, Me Jonathan Bellaiche.
The affair tarnished the second term of Jean Gachassin, president from 2009 to 2017. In 2015, a letter of denunciation mentioned ticket trafficking at Roland Garros for his benefit. The General Inspectorate of Sports and Youth had sent a report to the courts. The FFT also filed a complaint in 2017 against an FFT executive. This former executive was the recipient of a note for the purposes of prosecution, confirmed a judicial source. He is notably suspected of having embezzled tickets from the 2012 to 2016 editions of the Roland Garros tournament. His lawyer, Me Francis Triboulet, did not wish to comment.
A note for prosecution was also sent to two men suspected of concealment of misappropriation of banknotes under the guise of companies. Their lawyers, Mes Sébastien Schapira and Jean-Philippe Turin, did not wish to comment. The FFT ticket office is the subject of another investigation in Paris, opened at the request of the court of appeal after a classification of the PNF in mid-June: the current president, Gilles Moretton, and two of his relatives are accused by executives and former leaders of the FFT of having “organized the misappropriation of tickets for the Roland-Garros tournament”.