He was the son of a cafe proprietor, and held various jobs before managing to raise capital for a hydroelectric power generation company.

He founded a small bank in 1919 and specialized in turning around enterprises that were in financial difficulty through debt consolidation and the sale of shares at inflated prices.

He was released from the factory to exploit a legacy of his father, the rights to a waterfall in the Gripp valley of the Hautes-Pyrénées, by building a hydropower plant.

He used announcements of false discoveries to make the share prices rise by ten times their original value, then let them fall, then pushed them up again.

[6] The company was controlled by the Italian financier Riccardo Gualino, who was assisted by Benito Mussolini and the Bank of Italy, and had become the second-largest rayon manufacturer in the world.

[10] Vidal went to Rome and met the ambassador, who wrote that he had no objection to introducing shares of Snia Viscosa on the French stock exchange.

[11] The Ministry official then submitted the issue to Raoul Péret, Minister of Finance, saying he saw no reason to authorize the requested share float.

He pressed the ministry, which remained cautious and wanted assurances that there would be an agreement between the French and Italian textile industries.

After leaving office, Péret became legal counsel to the Oustric bank six months after the Snia Viscose shares were listed.

[11] Oustric moved from arbitrage to ownership of various risky enterprises which he turned around through debt consolidation and partial sale of shares.

In October 1930 Raoul Péret, who was now Minister of Justice, delayed the indictment for twelve days while the bank's shares were plunging in value.

On 2 November the minister told the attorney general and state prosecutor that an inopportune indictment might trigger a serious financial crisis.

[20] The news of the default broke at a time when the scandal of Marthe Hanau's failed bank in which many small investors lost their savings was still current.

[19] The commission of inquiry found that Péret had been involved as counsel of the Oustric bank and of the Paris Foncier and Holfra companies that it controlled.

[23] The Senate sat as High Court on 20 July 1931, with Albert Lebrun as president and Joseph Caillaux among the judges.

[19] The final report of the commission was completed in March 1932 but remained unpublished for fear of the effect on public opinion on the eve of a general election.