Gilles d'Ettore case in Agde: how three real estate developers from Hérault financed the appetites of the clairvoyant Sophia

The lavish wedding of the clairvoyant Sophia Martinez, in August 2023, at the heart of suspicions. DR

Three developers were indicted on August 1 for active corruption, breach of trust and misuse of corporate assets by the Béziers investigating judges responsible for investigating the sprawling corruption affair uncovered around the former mayor of Agde. They too appear to have participated in a well-oiled system of services provided to the elected official's relatives.

During the summer, the investigations continue. Three real estate developers spent a difficult week in Hérault, where they had to explain in detail their relationships in recent years with the two figures in the incredible corruption affair that has been shaking Agde since March: Gilles d'Ettore, the former mayor and ex-president of the Hérault-Méditerranée urban community, and Sophia Martinez, the sulphurous clairvoyant whom the elected official consulted frantically.

One in Dordogne, the other in Strasbourg

Incarcerated on March 11 for “corruption, embezzlement and fraud” Gilles d'Ettore and Sophia Martinez regained their freedom at the end of June, after having had to give up all political activity for one, all esoteric tasks for the other. With, as a key, being sidelined from the Hérault station. Gilles d'Ettore must stay in Dordogne, where a friend is putting him up. Sophia Martinez has returned to Strasbourg, her hometown.

Two Montpellier residents and one Sète resident

But the investigation is still active in Béziers, as three bosses of major Hérault groups (two Montpellier residents and one Sète resident) have just found out, and not in the most pleasant way. Summoned to the Montpellier police station, they spent 48 hours in police custody at the P.J., before being brought before the Béziers magistrates on August 1. The latter have indicted them for “active corruption, abuse of corporate assets or breach of trust”, as announced by prosecutor Raphaël Balland in a press release.

A hefty bail

The developers were released after paying a hefty bail (7,500 euros for one, 15,000 euros each for the other two) and are now banned from staying in Agde and from having contact with the eleven others under investigation. Enough to complicate the running of their business: all three were leading major real estate programs in the Hérault resort, where they have been present and active for years.

The note from the fortune teller's lavish wedding bank

However, their indictment apparently has nothing to do with their professional activity. According to our information, it is because they paid for a good part of Sophia Martinez's sumptuous wedding banquet, in August 2023, that these influential businessmen have accountable to justice. Everyone paid their share to pay the caterer's bill, estimated at 20,000 euros.

In police custody, two of them sat down at the table, explaining that they had acted at the request of Gilles d'Ettore, the third claiming to have just… ;makes "a gift" to the bride. An argument already invoked in May by another Sète developer under investigation, who had offered  4,500 € in cash to the bride and groom. As if a word of command had been given to some of the 300 guests at the wedding: Sophia Martinez estimated having received “between 20,000 euros and 30,000 euros” in cash that evening.

Suspicions of a widespread corruption system

These new indictments reinforce suspicions of the existence of a widespread corruption system in Agde, where the mayor asked economic players operating in his territory to finance the growing demands for material goods or services from the clairvoyant on a case-by-case basis. One of the three promoters was also a client of the woman who called herself a medium, and used her ventriloquist skills to give instructions by telephone, supposedly coming from beyond.

The late season may not be any calmer in Agde: several additional preliminary investigations have been opened by the Béziers prosecutor's office, concerning the personal and professional entourage of Gilles d'Ettore.

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