Émile Vernaudon

Corruption convictions In March 2007 he was convicted of corruption in the Tautira land affair, given an 18 month suspended prison sentence, and declared ineligible for public office for five years. The sentence was upheld on appeal in April 2008.

On 4 December 2007 Vernaudon was remanded in custody on corruption charges relating to his management of the Office of Posts and Telecommunications. As a result of his detention he was unable to campaign in the 2008 territorial elections, and his place on the To Tatou Ai'a was taken by his partner Heifara Izal. He was able to run in the municipal elections in February 2008 and was re-elected as Mayor. He was released on bail on 2 April 2008. In December 2008 the French court of cassation upheld his sentence of ineligibility in the Tautira case, and he was removed from office as mayor.

In January 2011 he was convicted of concealment and complicity in embezzlement of public funds, complicity in forgery and use of forgery, and illegal taking of interests in the OPT case, and sentenced to five years in prison and five years of ineligibility for public office. The following month, during the second round of the Mahina by-election, the list he led came third, winning 23.2% of the votes cast. At the end of May 2011, still in prison, he resigned from his post as municipal councilor and left politics. He was granted conditional release on 6 June 2012.

In February 2016 he was tried for corruption over the award of the contract for the Honotua communications cable, and acquitted. In December 2016 he was convicted of corruption again and sentenced to another year in prison for giving a contract for Mahina's green waste to a friend. He was convicted again of forgery, use of forgery, breach of trust and embezzlement of public funds over the running of Radio Bleue, a public radio station. He was sentenced to a year in prison, a 5 million XPF fine, and five years of ineligibility for public office.

In April 2018 he joined the Tahoeraa Huiraatira to contest the 2018 election. He was subsequently removed from the electoral lists as he was unable to vote and ineligible for public office.

Honours In 2000 he was made a member of the Ordre national du Mérite. He was stripped of his membership in October 2011.