Undercover video sparks outrage over secret dinner parties for Paris elite

An undercover report showing members of the Paris elite enjoying secret dinner parties in luxury restaurants and flouting Covid-19 restrictions has sparked fury in France, and prompted the city's prosecutor to launch an investigation.

The probe comes after a TV report by channel M6 that aired Friday, showing hidden camera footage of two upmarket restaurants filled with mask-free guests.

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In the video, an undercover journalist enters a private dining club with closed shutters and is greeted by a waiter wearing white gloves. She is asked on whose behalf she has been invited and is told: "Once you're through the door, there's no more Covid."
The maitre d' is heard explaining that the menu starts at 160 euros ($190) per person. For 490 euros ($580) diners can sip champagne while feasting on foie gras with truffle and langoustine in a ginger sauce.
"We are looking into possible charges of endangerment and undeclared labor," a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor told CNN Monday. "We will verify whether the gatherings were organized in violation of sanitary rules and determine who were the potential organizers and participants."
Restaurants in France have been closed since late last year, as the country battles a third wave of coronavirus infections. A further "limited lockdown" took effect last week, as President Emmanuel Macron warned that the country risks "losing control" over the pandemicThe video goes on to show another dinner party being held in lavish surroundings with large tapestries and gilded paintings. The guests are seen giving each other "la bise," kissing each other cheek to cheek.
The organizer appears to claim: "This week I dined at two or three restaurants, so-called clandestine restaurants, with a certain number of ministers."
Due to its recognizable decor, the restaurant was later identified as Palais Vivienne owned by Pierre-Jean Chalençon.
Chalençon's lawyer released a statement Sunday acknowledging the distorted voice on the video belonged to his client but that he was joking when he said government ministers had attended dinners.
The scandal has drawn the ire of many online, with the hashtag #OnVeutLesNoms (We Want The Names) trending on Twitter on Monday.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal told LCI news channel Sunday that authorities have been investigating reports of illegal parties for months and that 200 suspects have been identified so far. "They will face a heavy punishment," Attal added.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that restaurants have been closed in France since last month. They've been closed since last year. This has been corrected.Nearly 2000 inmates broke free from a prison in southeast Nigeria Monday after armed men invaded the site and used explosives to blast parts of the prison, authorities said.

Six of the 1,844 inmates who escaped from the Owerri Custodial Centre, Imo State, have voluntarily returned, according to a spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service.
Thirty-five others chose not to abscond during the attack, authorities said.
"The attackers who stormed the facility at about 0215hrs on Monday 5th April, 2021, gained entrance into the yard by using explosives to blast the administrative block," said Francis Enobore, spokesman to Nigerian prison service.
The Nigeria Police Force has blamed outlawed secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its paramilitary wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) for the attack.
The police said the gunmen, who had also stormed the Force headquarters in the state, were armed with a variety of sophisticated weaponry and military hardware.
The attempt by the attackers to gain access to the Police armoury at the Headquarters was totally and appropriately resisted by Nigeria Police Force," the force said in a statement Monday, adding that no lives were lost in the incident.President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently on a medical visit to the United Kingdom, described the simultaneous attacks as "an act of terrorism," in a statement posted by his spokesman Garba Shehu.
Buhari also directed the country's law enforcement agencies to apprehend fleeing inmates, and arrest the perpetrators who "are believed to be deadly criminals," the President said.
Nnamdi Kanu, leader for separatist group, IPOB, has denied the organization's involvement in the attacks.
He told CNN: "We have no hand in what transpired in Owerri, Imo State. Having said that, we do recognize and acknowledge the anger, resentment and a sense of injustice being felt by many people -- especially the young ones," he said.
"So what's happening now is people trying to avenge the death of their loved ones at the hands of the Nigerian security services. Some people, I believe, took it upon themselves to say 'enough is enough. Anywhere that a government allows injustice to fester, they're only inviting anarchy, Kanu added.IPOB was proscribed and designated a terror organization in 2017 by the Nigerian government after its persistent demands for independence fueled periodic clashes with security forces