"An unacceptable provocation": Pierre-Edouard Stérin accused by "L'Humanité" of having named his holding company after one of his journalists

By The New Obs with AFP
Pierre-Edouard Stérin in Clichy, July 19, 2010. SIPA
"Snub" or "intimidation" ? The communist daily "L'Humanité" criticized conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin on Friday, September 12, for renaming his main holding company after one of its journalists who had investigated the businessman.
Pierre-Edouard Stérin renamed this structure "Lemahieu Holding, appropriating the name of our colleague Thomas Lemahieu, who published numerous revelations about his aims in these columns" , writes "l'Humanité".
According to the newspaper, this structure domiciled in Belgium is at the top of the businessman's companies (what is called a holding company).
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Asked by AFP for a reaction from Pierre-Edouard Stérin, his investment fund, Otium Capital, responded: " We have no comment to make. "
Quoted in "L'Humanité", the newspaper's director, Fabien Gay, saw in this name "an unacceptable provocation, even an attempt at intimidation" .
"I wondered if I was seeing things.""I don't know if it's a snub or a form of intimidation, but it's targeting, it puts me personally forward, so it's potentially dangerous and I don't take it lightly," Thomas Lemahieu told AFP.
He said he discovered this name on August 10, while "consulting information on companies registered at (Mr. Stérin's) address in Belgium" : "I wondered if I was seeing things, if it wasn't a form of hallucination."
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