PARIS: Ex-French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, who is facing up to seven years jail term and two million euros ($2.2 million) in fines if found guilty, Monday went on trial for tax fraud
The minister resigned in disgrace in 2013 after admitting to having a secret Swiss bank account. The 63-year-old faces up to seven years in jail and two million euros ($2.2 million) in fines if found guilty of stashing offshore his earnings from a lucrative hair-transplant business he ran with his now ex-wife.
The Cahuzac scandal was the first of a series that have tarnished the presidency of Francois Hollande, who had promised a squeaky clean government after succeeding Nicholas Sarkozy, the subject of several graft investigations, in May 2012.
A media scrum is expected to descend on the court for the start of the trial, even if an opening defence gambit may prompt a delay of several months.
The spectacular scandal saw Hollande initially backing Cahuzac’s vehement denials after the Mediapart news website first broke the story in December 2012, posting a compromising audio recording.
Cahuzac, whose remit had included cracking down on tax fraud, promptly lodged a defamation suit against Mediapart. But the trained surgeon, still protesting his innocence, resigned his post after a formal investigation was launched in March 2013. Two weeks later, he dramatically confessed to having held the account with Swiss banking giant UBS and said he was “consumed by remorse”.
