“I remember my anger and my indignation. » Eva Joly keeps an intact memory of May 5, 1996, the day when gigantic flames ravaged the legendary headquarters of Crédit Lyonnais, at 19, boulevard desItaliens, in the heart of the 9th arrondissement of Paris. As an investigating judge at the financial center of the Paris courthouse, she led investigations into the public bank at the time: from the so-called “Tapie-Adidas” affair to questionable real estate transactions, including suspicions of embezzlement in subsidiaries, the establishment was at the heart of several cases. “In the months that followed, we were very worried about the possible destruction of evidence linked to our investigations,” recalled the former judge by telephone on March 23.
The fire is one of the most resounding in the post-war history of the capital, larger in size than that which occurred at Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. Thirty years later, the disaster still conceals some mysteries: how can we explain that more than two thirds of the surface of the largest civil building in Paris were destroyed? Was its origin purely accidental, as the first experts who looked into the disaster concluded? The fantasies continued to circulate. Whatever the case, it remains the symbol of the dark years of Crédit Lyonnais, since, literally and figuratively, the establishment went up in flames.
Pascal Lamy, 79 years old today, who will become European Commissioner three years after the fire, was, on this Sunday morning in May 1996, one of the first on site. From Pigalle, the neighborhood where he lives, he notices black smoke in the distance, without paying attention to it at first. But the marathon runner, on his way to the Bois de Boulogne, understands what is happening while listening to his car radio: Crédit Lyonnais is burning. He has been the general director since 1994, and no one had thought to warn him, he recounts three decades later. He immediately turns around and arrives “in his tracksuit” in front of the headquarters, where the firefighters are already busy. “There was a curse,” he whispers, in reference to the financial misadventures of the Lyonnais at the same time.
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Originally published at Almouwatin.com
