the Fillon couple offers to repay nearly €700,000 over ten years

Former Prime Minister François Fillon offered to reimburse the National Assembly to the tune of €700,000, after the Court of Cassation validated at the end of April the conviction of the former Sarthe deputy for embezzlement of public funds in the affair of his wife Penelope's fictitious jobs.

The former Prime Minister was sentenced on appeal to four years of imprisonment, including one year, a fine of €375,000 and ten years of ineligibility. Penelope Fillon was sentenced to two years' suspended prison sentence and a €375,000 fine and Marc Joulaud, former deputy and mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, to three years' suspended prison sentence.

According to BFMTV et franceinfo François Fillon proposed an agreement providing for the payment of nearly €700,000 to the National Assembly, spread over the next ten years. The sum corresponds to that which the Fillon spouses were “solidarily” ordered to pay in 2022 during the appeal trial, damages and interest, as well as €10,000 in legal costs.

A “normal” process

“We are talking about a sum of €689,000 which corresponds to the execution of the final sentence concerning the parliamentary assistance contracts between Marc Joulaud and Penelope Fillonnotes the lawyer of the National Assembly, M^e Yves Claisse, contacted by West France. It is quite normal for discussions to take place between the creditor and the debtor to agree on payment terms. It is also normal, given the amounts, that we agree on a timetable. It is planned for ten years. But there are still discussions about the guarantees provided. On this point, it is not yet formalized. »

François Fillon's sentence re-examined at the end of November

The sentences of Penelope Fillon and Marc Joulaud are final but the Court of Cassation has however ordered a new hearing on November 25 to re-examine the sentences handed down against the former Prime Minister. 

The Fillon affair broke out in 2017, when the weekly The Chained Duck had revealed that the wife would have received €500,000 gross for a fictitious job in the National Assembly.