PARIS: Jerome Cahuzac, a cosmetic surgeon and former French budget minister tasked with cracking down on tax evasion, has been jailed for three years after he was found guilty of tax fraud and money laundering.Print Former French budget minister jailed for tax evasion
Cahuzac resigned in March 2013 after French investigative website Mediapart claimed the trained surgeon had hidden €600,000 (£503,256, $635,034) from France’s tax authorities for two decades, reports the Financial Times.
He first denied the report, which was published in December 2012. The politician started legal proceedings against Mediapart and swore before parliament that he had never held an account abroad.
The trial, which concluded on 8 December, revealed that Cahuzac and his now-former wife Patricia Menard moved profits from their hair transplant business offshore during the 1990s.
Investigators discovered that the €600,000 had been moved from Switzerland to a Julius Baer account in Singapore in 2009.
A total of €3.5m was uncovered in secret accounts. Menard kept €2.7m in an Isle of Man account, while about €240,000 was paid into accounts belonging to Cahuzac’s mother.
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