A French court found former justice minister Michel Mercier guilty of embezzlement in a fake jobs scheme he ran for the benefit of family members. | AFP
As senator, Mercier claimed 50,000 euros in salary for his wife Joelle between 2005 and 2009, and 37,000 euros for his daughter Delphine between 2012 and 2014.
She was found guilty of conspiracy to embezzle public funds and of receiving stolen money and sentenced to a suspended prison term of 18 months and a 40,000-euro fine.Prosecutors had asked for the ex-minister to serve one year behind bars, accusing him of “creating smoke screens” in his defence and seeking to mislead the court.Mercier had based part of his defence on his rural roots, pitting his “common sense” against the “Parisians” of the national financial crimes unit PNF.
The move came in reaction to a public outcry over a high-profile case involving former right-wing prime minister Francois Fillon, who was found guilty of providing a fake parliamentary assistant job to his wife that saw her paid hundreds of thousands of euros in public funds.
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