François Fillon, sentenced in 2020 in the case of the fictitious jobs of his wife Penelope, is the target of another investigation into the hiring of a parliamentary assistant, we learned on Friday.
The investigation of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), opened in 2017 for “embezzlement of public funds”, relates to the conditions of employment by the former Prime Minister of the writer MaĂ«l Renouard, between 2013 and 2015, as parliamentary assistant , indicated a source close to the matter, confirming information from RTL.
As revealed by the Buzzfeed site in 2017, MaĂ«l Renouard, François Fillon’s “pen” when the latter was at Matignon, had been hired to write “Faire”, the presidential candidate’s program book published in September 2015. A book that sold 300,000 copies and brought in 550,000 euros to François Fillon.
The nfp in charge of the file
The investigation, carried out by the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF), must determine whether the contract as parliamentary assistant to Maël Renouard, paid 38,000 euros out of public funds during this period, could be justified by this single mission.
The former Prime Minister was heard on this subject this year, according to the source close to the file, and the procedure is still in the hands of the PNF.
Magistrates can now decide to open a judicial investigation, summon François Fillon before the Paris Criminal Court or dismiss the investigation.
“This investigation is a pure artificial creation of the PNF which persists in keeping open empty procedures and leaves them opportunely a few weeks before the upcoming appeal trial”, he denounced.
In the section of the fictitious jobs of his wife Penelope, François Fillon appealed against his conviction in June 2020 to five years in prison, including two closed, and will be retried in November.