The town of Agde on the Mediterranean coast is reeling from a scandal which has the rest of France shaking its head in collective bemusement and amusement.
It concerns a beautiful local fortune teller and the town’s mayor, Gilles d’Ettore, a former secret service officer and police officer. Both are now in jail while under judicial investigation. The fortune teller, Sophia Martinez, faces charges of embezzlement, while the mayor is accused of corruption for spending lavish amounts of taxpayers’ money on her.
Ms Martinez had a reputation for being able to speak to the dead. According to Mr d'Ettore's lawyer, when the mayor asked her to put him in touch with his deceased father, she succeeded. While performing séances, her voice would suddenly appear to change and take on the tone of the mayor’s father.
Over the past four years it is alleged that she manipulated the mayor in person and by phone with remarkable ventriloquist skills. He received thousands of mysterious calls from “voices” of the dead including angels, some of them urging the mayor to help the fortune teller.
And that’s where the corruption comes in. The mayor is alleged to have paid for lavish holidays for Ms Martinez and her family, including to Polynesia and Thailand, all using public funds. It’s alleged that the “voices” persuaded him to hire several members of her family to work for the town council and also renovate her home.
As you might expect, both of their lawyers deny any wrongdoing by their respective clients, but locals said it all comes down to sex in a town with a lot of it already. Why? Well, it's because Agde is home to Europe’s biggest swinger community. Tens of thousands of couples head to the town from across Europe every year to swap partners.
Whilst the case rumbles on, the local judge is keeping both the mayor and fortune teller in custody to prevent potential witness tampering.