Squadra Avocats defended SCA Madivial, an agricultural cooperative based in Martinique, and its chairman, Mr Ange Milia, at the trial held from 28 to 30 October 2026 before the Fort-de-France Criminal Court. Judgment has been reserved until 26 January 2027.
Prosecuted for fraud to the detriment of ODEADOM, the French agency for agricultural development in the overseas territories, and for passive private-sector bribery, the cooperative and its chairman were accused of overproducing poultry between 2014 and 2018, then destroying the surplus while concealing these destructions, in order to obtain nearly €4.8 million in aid under POSEI, the EU programme supporting agriculture in the outermost regions. Madivial and its chairman firmly deny the charges against them.
Over three days of hearings, the defence set out to show that no fraudulent conduct had been established, since the aid applications had never been examined by the investigators and contained no forged or false documents, and that the alleged large-scale destructions, based solely on unverified statements by former employees, were contradicted by the case file, while the cooperative had no economic interest in overproducing only to destroy.
Madivial brings together some ninety Martinique farmers across five sectors (poultry, rabbit, pork, beef and dairy), and the cooperative is still operating.
The team on the matter: Yoan Havard, Partner, and Anaïs Péricat, Associate.