Former major of Tours, France, Jean Germain was found dead in his home on the day he was due to stand trial for embezzlement and fraud in the city's Chinese mass wedding project.
In 2006, when Germain was major of Tours, he proposed inviting young Chinese couples to hold fake collective weddings in order to promote local tourism. The mass wedding tour included a tour of the area, a mock wedding in the Tours town hall done by the major himself and more. The project became operational in 2007, and Chinese couples flocked to the romantic French city to play dress up and get fake married.
Germain had originally reported that the project could bring in 10,000 Euros per mass wedding for the city of Tours. However, from 2007 to 2011, Germain appointed Taiwanese project manager Lise Han, who subcontracted travel agent duties for the couples to her own private firm. This was seen as illegal favoritism, the French media found out, and Germain was forced to stop.
Germain was fired from his mayoral position and was hit with a lawsuit. He was scheduled to appear in court on April 7, but was found dead in his home later that day. Local police stated that it was most likely a suicide.
Source: ifeng.com
Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.
Keywords: mass Chinese wedding Jean Germain suicide
All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.
Please login to add a comment. Click here to login immediately.
True or not, this would only make this the snowy coat in the tip of the iceberg.
Apr 10, 2015 10:58 Report Abuse
Germain wrote this as part of his suicide note , "I did not embezzle one cent. The injustice and humiliation is unbearable". A 60+ years old woman I met on the train, a fairly senior ranking ex-CCP official who emigrated to Australia years ago coming back for a brief visit said this about China, "anyone touched by CCP's China has no good ending". Too late for Germain to hear this. Hopefully not too late for others.....
Apr 09, 2015 21:36 Report Abuse
Many European politicians are corrupt to the bone, both local and central governments. They're just a tad more clever in the strategies they use because they still have the rule of law as a limit. When they get in touch with the mainland way of things, they're mostly thrilled at how easy and exciting it is.
Apr 10, 2015 07:52 Report Abuse
Sign up with
Google
(
(