22 people on the bench

According to judicial investigations, Jean-Luc Bagurweapons collector and “Venerable Master” of the Masonic lodge Athanor, located in Puteaux, in the Parisian department of Hauts-de-Seine, had commissioned “his dear brother” Frederic Vaglioa 53-year-old businessman, organized the murder of his competitor “for 700,000 euros without taxes.”

What at first seemed like a professional dispute soon revealed a much darker plot. The police questioned the two soldiers detained near Dini’s home and, during the interrogation, they stated that they believed they had been asked to assassinate the business advisor on behalf of the French State, considering that she worked for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence services. But Dini was not a spy and the French State had nothing to do with it.

It was later discovered that, in reality, Bagur and Vaglio were not only motivated by revenge, but were part of a larger secret groupmade up of businessmen, ex-military men, retired police officers, officials and agents of the French intelligence services who, under the façade of a lodge, had created a parallel structure dedicated to espionage, extortion and selective attacks.

In this criminal network, Bagur commissioned the missions; Frédéric Vaglio acted as an intermediary, and a third Freemason, Daniel Beaulieu—a retired agent of the French Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (today DGSI)—was in charge of organizing operations on the ground.

Vaglio allegedly channeled the orders of the “master-chief” to a squad of hitmen who worked for Beaulieu, 72 years old. At the head of that group of executors was Sébastien Leroya security guard. Although he did not belong to the lodge, Leroy performed the “dirty work” and admitted in police custody that he or his associates carried out most of the assaults, robberies and murders attributed to Athanor, including the murder of racing driver Laurent Pasquali, allegedly as a settling of scores, in 2018.

“The brothers”, confronted

The three main defendants face life sentences if convicted. Between them, the relationship has deteriorated to the point that, through their lawyers, they accuse each other and share the blame. According to the instruction, each one tries to present himself as a manipulated link in a chain that would have been led by another of the “brothers” of the Athanor lodge.

Sébastien Leroy, like the two soldiers arrested in the attempted murder of Marie‑Hélène Dini, declared to the police that he believed he was acting at all times on behalf of the Stateaccording to several French media. He also claimed that Daniel Beaulieu had “manipulated” him and made him believe that he could become an informant for the DGSI, thus justifying the missions he entrusted to him.

Beaulieu, for his part, maintains that he himself was under the influence of Vaglio, whom he describes as a “born manipulator” and with whom, in addition, he had a relationship “of economic dependence” because he helped “keep his company afloat.” In his statements, the former intelligence agent assures that Vaglio was the one who defined the “missions” and that he limited himself to transferring them to the executors.

Bagur, finally, claims that he was a victim of Vaglio’s toxic influence and summarizes his own role as a simple misinformed boss of criminal projects. Thus, the Bagur-Vaglio-Beaulieu triangle arrives at the trial converted in a circle of mutual distrustwhere everyone says they have been manipulated by others.

The 22 accused

In total, this week, 22 people have sat in the dock in a trial that will last three and a half months at the Paris Criminal Court, accused of multiple crimes, including illicit association for criminal purposes, attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons.

The majority of the accused, aged between 30 and 73, have no criminal record and come from various backgrounds: four are members of the General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE), three police officers, six businessmen, as well as a janitor, an engineer, a medical biologist, a gunsmith, a sports coach, several security guards and an unemployed person, according to the report. The World.

In the summary, of more than 5,000 pagesAthanor’s links to private spy networks are detailed, as well as his possible connection to a corruption scandal in the defense sector, according to the French press. The judicial investigation, opened in 2021, is expected to culminate this year with the start of the trial, which promises to be one of the most media in France in recent months.