François Fillon will “return the money”. According to BFMTV information, confirmed by Le Parisien, the former Prime Minister offered to pay nearly 700,000 euros to the National Assembly, in order to reimburse the money received thanks to the fictitious parliamentary assistant jobs held by his wife, Penelope Fillon.
A proposal from the Fillon couple, which comes at the request of the Palais-Bourbon, according to our information, a few months after the judgment of the Court of Cassation confirming the guilt of the former right-wing elected official for “embezzlement of public funds”.
In detail, Penelope Fillon, with the guarantee of her husband François, offered to reimburse 689,989.32 euros to the National Assembly, spread over ten years. A sum which corresponds to the amount of damages that the spouses were ordered to pay jointly in 2022, during the appeal trial, to which are added 10,000 euros in legal costs.
New hearing on November 25
This reimbursement proposal comes as a new trial is scheduled for November 25. Indeed, if the Court of Cassation confirmed the guilt of François Fillon, it did not confirm the sentence of four years in prison, including one year, ten years of ineligibility and a fine of 375,000 euros. A new hearing will therefore have to set the sentence and damages pronounced against the former candidate for the 2017 presidential election. According to his lawyer, Antonin Lévy, quoted by franceinfo, this would be a proposal made there. several months ago.
The conviction of Penelope Fillon (two years suspended prison sentence and 375,000 euros fine) and that of Marc Joulaud (three years suspended prison sentence) were, however, confirmed by the Court of Cassation.
This refund might not be the last. “We proposed to re-discuss the remaining 120,000 euros after the hearing on November 25,” a source close to the defendants told Le Parisien.
The affair, known as “Penelopegate”, was first revealed by Le Canard Enchaîné, in the middle of the 2017 presidential campaign and when François Fillon, big winner of the LR primary, was presented as a clear favorite in the polls.
The investigation then revealed that François Fillon had hired his wife Penelope between 1998 and 2013, in exchange for a total remuneration of 613,000 euros net, “fictitious or overvalued” according to the prosecution, for whom the activities of Penelope Fillon in his Sarthe mansion only recounted the “social role” of a “politician’s spouse”, and even then, particularly known for her discretion.
