French former prime minister, wife found guilty of fraud

PARIS: A Paris court has found French former prime minister Francois Fillon guilty of having used public funds to pay his wife and children for work they never performed.

His wife, Penelope Fillon, has also been found guilty as an accomplice.

The court has not detailed the sentence yet. The work had brought the family more than 1 million euros ($1.08 million) since 1998.

The scandal broke in the French media just three months before the country’s 2017 presidential election, as Fillon was the front-runner in the race. It cost him his reputation.

Fillon sank to third place in the election, which was won by Emmanuel Macron.

Fillon, who was France’s prime minister from 2007 to 2012, and his wife have denied any wrongdoing and can appeal the decision.

Penelope Fillon’s role alongside her husband drew all the attention during the February-march trial, which focused on determining whether her activities were in the traditional role of an elected official’s partner - or involved actual paid work.

Prosecutors denounced “fraudulent, systematic practices” and requested five years in prison, including a three-year suspended sentence, and a 375,000 euro (more than $415,000) fine against Francois Fillon, and a three-year suspended sentence and the same fine against his wife.

Fillon was accused of misuse of public funds, receiving money from the misuse of public funds and the misappropriation of company assets. His wife was charged mostly as an accomplice. During the trial, Penelope Fillon explained how she decided to support her husband’s career when he was first elected as a French lawmaker in 1981 in the small town of Sable-sur-sarthe, in rural western France.

Over the years, she was offered different types of contracts as a parliamentary assistant, depending on her husband’s political career.

She described her work as mostly doing reports about local issues, opening the mail, meeting with residents and helping to prepare speeches for local events. She said working that way allowed her to have a flexible schedule and raise their five children in the Fillons’ countryside manor.