The then CEO Yves Le Masne is said to have sold shares for 588,000 euros in July, three weeks after the Orpea management was informed about the imminent publication of a book about abuses in the rest homes of the group. Le Masne was removed from his position at the end of last month.
In the book ‘Les fossoyeurs’ (‘The Gravediggers’) by journalist Victor Castanet, there is talk of rationing, elderly people who remain in their excrement or receive no care for days. The abuses are said to be the result of the group’s search for returns. The share of the nursing home operator, who is also active in Belgium, plunged on the Paris stock exchange after the publication.
Le Masne says the stock transaction had nothing to do with the book. He also said he sold only about a third of his shares. “The middle of the summer is the time when I usually sell stocks, as also reflected in my previously published statements.”