Fraud trial of Hollande's ex-budget minister resumes

By Hajer M’tiri

PARIS (AA) - The tax fraud trial of President Francois Hollande’s former budget minister resumed in Paris on Monday.

Jerome Cahuzac -- who was tasked with leading Hollande’s campaign against wealthy tax-avoiders shortly after he was elected president in 2012 -- is accused of tax fraud and money laundering.

Within a year of his appointment, Cahuzac was forced to admit that he had used a secret Swiss bank account for 20 years and lied about it to parliament in the first major scandal to hit Hollande’s government.

The 63-year-old faces up to seven years in jail and a 1 million euro ($1.1 million) fine if he is convicted of stashing earnings from a lucrative hair-transplant business he ran with now ex-wife and co-defendant Patricia Menard.

The scandal emerged in December 2012 when the Mediapart news website broke the story.

For months Cahuzac denied the allegations on major television stations and solemnly vowed in the National Assembly that he had no secret bank accounts.

He was backed by Hollande throughout until April 2013 -- a month after a formal investigation was launched -- when he made a sudden confession, saying he was “consumed by remorse”.

Cahuzac is accused of concealing at least 687,000 euros ($766,000) in income from tax authorities between 2009 and 2012. He is also accused of laundering money through Swiss and Singaporean bank accounts as well as dummy companies in Panama and the Seychelles from 2003 to 2013.

Menard, a 60-year-old dermatologist, also had 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) of undeclared assets from her business in accounts in Switzerland, the U.K. and the Isle of Man.

Cahuzac and Menard have already paid 2.3 million euros ($2.6 million) in back taxes.

The trial was adjourned after opening in February and the remaining case is expected to last two weeks.