杏吧原创

Paris

MAGISTRATES investigating the activities of Jacques Crozemarie, the
former president of the Association for Cancer Research (ARC), were last week
handed more than a thousand new documents relating to his role in the financial
scandal that has rocked the French charity. Crozemarie was arrested last month
and is still in custody.

In January, Crozemarie was forced to resign as head of the ARC, one of the
country鈥檚 leading medical charities, after an audit revealed that only 27 per
cent of its 1993 budget was spent on research (This Week, 20 January, p 8).

The new documents were provided by Jean Montaldo, author of a book about the
scandal called The Cancer Gang. Montaldo obtained them from an
accountant who claims to have operated a system of double billing for a company
linked to the ARC.

Crozemarie was arrested on 26 June after being investigated for alleged
鈥渂reach of trust, forgery, use of forged documents and collusion鈥�. He suffered a
mild heart attack shortly afterwards and was taken to hospital. Since then he
has not been questioned by Jean-Pierre Zanoto, the Paris magistrate who is
leading the inquiry into the allegations. Last week Zanoto confirmed that
Crozemarie must remain under arrest. He is expected to answer questions as soon
as his health permits.

Zanoto鈥檚 investigators say they already have evidence of at least 80 million
francs (拢10 million) in overbilling by International Development, a group
of companies that managed ARC鈥檚 publications. According to the French newspaper
Lib茅ration, the investigators say that most of the money was
spent on services that had no connection with cancer research. Michel Simon, the
head of International Development, was arrested shortly after Crozemarie.