French minister Brigitte Bourguignon says she’s "disgusted" by revelations the boss of nursing home operator Orpea – who was sacked last weekend – sold close to 590,000 euros of company stock after being informed of allegations that residents were abused.
Yves le Masne was fired on Sunday, while French authorities have opened an investigation into the for-profit group, which operates 350 homes in France.
The scandal followed allegations in the book Les Fossoyeurs (The Gravediggers) accusing the company of systematically cutting corners to save money, including rationing food and adult nappies.
Orpea residents pay more than 6,500 euros per month, six times more than the average nursing home.
Le Masne has now come under further fire after satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé revealed on Wednesday that he had sold shares in the group ahead of the book's publication.
According to the paper, Le Masne sold close to 590,000 shares in the company at the end of July, as filings from French financial market regulator AMF show.
Questions asked
A few week earlier, Orpea had received detailed questions about allegations contained in Les Fossoyeurs by French journalist Victor Castanet.
Le Masne sold his shares when the share prices were high at 107.85 euros, the paper reported. Since the scandal, the stock price has nose-dived to around 40 euros.
French authorities have opened an investigation into both Orpea’s finances and the conditions in its homes.
Its new chief executive Philippe Charrier said the matter concerned his predecessor and that the “authorities would examine the case”.
“He may have had good reasons but I will not judge this instead of the authorities," he told BFM TV.
Bourguignon, minister delegate for personal independence, said on Wednesday she was "even more disgusted" by the revelations of stock selling, promising "detailed investigations" into all the allegations.
Bourguignon had discussions with Charrier and the group's general director on Tuesday.
"I expressed my anger and explained that they perhaps have shareholders to reassure, but I have to reassure residents and families who are worried, and staff who have suffered so much through this technique."
Court action
A number of families alleging their relatives were abused are taking joint legal action against Orpea.
"It won’t bring my mother back but it's for the others, if we don't denounce the abuse, it can continue," Isabelle Schwartz, whose mother suffered multiple fractures and bruising while in an Orpea care home west of Paris, told RFI.
"The only thing I expect from the investigation is that it stops the abuse."
Orpea initially denied the allegations. "We formally contest all of these accusations, which we consider to be false, outrageous and prejudicial", it said in a statement last week.
It has also denied allegations by Castanet that he was offered 15 million euros not to publish his book.
'Undesirable' things
Questioned in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Charrier rejected the responsibility of the group, preferring to blame the staff.
He also minimised the allegations in the book, that included a rationing of food and patient neglect with some "having to wait hours in their own excrement before being cleaned".
"When undesirable things occur, you must know that they happen in all Ehpad (nursing homes). We are following the situation closely, we report and we amend," Charrier told MPs.
"I would be the first to present my excuses if cases were proven. But it’s a very small number compared to the number of residents."
Centrist MP Nicolas Turquois said he was "outraged" by the group's response.
Laetitia Romeiro Dias of the ruling LREM party called the hearing a "masquerade", saying the group owed French tax payers and their families "more transparency and humility".
Election issue
The Orpea scandal comes as France’s presidential election campaign is underway
Valérie Pecresse, the right-wing candidate for the Republicans party, says she wants to overhaul the care home sector, tightening rules on how for-profit homes are run.
Communist party candidate Fabien Roussel has called on the government to “expropriate” Orpea’s care homes.
François Ruffin, of the hard-left France Unbowed, has called for them all to be nationalised.
