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Nicolas Sarkozy could face trial over alleged illegal funding – reports Nicolas Sarkozy should face trial over alleged illegal funding – prosecutors
(35 minutes later)
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president who is making a fresh bid for election next year, could face trial over alleged illegal funding of his failed 2012 campaign, a source in the investigation has said. French prosecutors are to recommend that Nicolas Sarkozy stands trial over alleged irregularities in his failed 2012 re-election campaign, which could affect the former president’s hopes of returning to the Élysée Palace.
“Prosecutors are calling for all of those charged to be tried,” the source told AFP on Monday. An investigating magistrate must now decide whether to follow the prosecution’s recommendations. Sarkozy, who last month launched his candidacy for next year’s presidential election, has been under investigation over alleged illegal campaign finances.
Sarkozy, 61, the leader of the conservative opposition Republicans party, faces allegations of false accounting, which it is claimed allowed him to greatly exceed spending limits in 2012. Prosecutors will recommend that Sarkozy should be tried over the allegations concerning how the cost of his failed 2012 campaign reached more than double the legal limit, according to both Reuters and AFP.
The case hinges on the activity of the public relations firm Bygmalion, which organised some of Sarkozy’s campaign appearances and is accused of using a vast system of false accounting. “Prosecutors are calling for all of those charged to be tried,” a source told AFP.
Bygmalion allegedly charged €18.5m (£15.5m) to Sarkozy’s party – then called the UMP, but since renamed the Republicans – instead of billing the president’s re-election campaign. Sarkozy was put under formal investigation in February, when he was questioned by magistrates at the Paris financial prosecutor’s office over the claims of dual accounting and the discovery of €18m (£15.5m) in false invoices issued by the Bygmalion event organisation company.
As a result, the campaign was able to greatly exceed a spending limit of €22.5m, the prosecution alleges. Bygmalion organised some of Sarkozy’s campaign appearances and is accused of using false accounting. It allegedly charged the bill to Sarkozy’s party instead of the president’s re-election campaign.
Sarkozy was put under formal investigation with regard to the scandal in February this year, when he was questioned by magistrates at the Paris financial prosecutor’s office. He was notified at the time that he was under investigation for “suspected illegal financing of an election campaign for a candidate, who went beyond the legal limit for electoral spending”. As a result, the campaign was able to greatly exceed a spending limit of €22.5m, according to the prosecution. The maximum penalty he could face was a fine of €3,700, lawyers said.
More details soon … The winner of a crucial centre-right primary election in November is likely to go on to face François Hollande, who beat Sarkozy in the 2012 election, and the far-right Front National leader, Marine Le Pen.
Sarkozy’s ambitions have not been helped by a series of scandals, including allegations that he used money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 campaign, that he was involved in kickbacks from an arms deal in the 1990s, and that he tried to bribe a magistrate to get information on another corruption case.
The Bygmalion case could prove the most damaging, especially after the investigation found that Sarkozy asked for more campaign events in mid-March 2012, about two months before the vote.
His campaign director, Guillaume Lambert, has told police he warned Sarkozy of the risk of breaching financing limits. Questioned by police in September 2015, the former president said he did not remember the warning, and described the controversy as a “farce”.
In a book published last month, Sarkozy wrote: “It will no doubt be hard to believe, but I swear it is the strict truth: I knew nothing about this company until the scandal broke.”