Paris
Ex-PM convicted: Former French Prime Minister François Fillon was found guilty this week of paying his wife, children, and an assistant some $1.1 million from official funds for work that they never did. A French court slapped him with a five-year prison term with three years suspended, as well as a fine of $423,000 and a 10-year ban on running for office, and ordered him to pay back the embezzled funds. His wife, Penelope, received a fine and a three-year suspended sentence. The couple said they would appeal. Fillon, a conservative, served under President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. The no-show jobs scheme was exposed by the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé in 2017, and the scandal upended Fillon’s campaign for the presidency, clearing the way for current President Emmanuel Macron.