This amount corresponds to the damages that the former Prime Minister was ordered to pay to the National Assembly with his wife Penelope and his former deputy Marc Joulaud, in 2022.
Several months after the judgment of the Court of Cassation which had judged his guilt definitive in the affair of the fictitious jobs of his wife Pénélope, François Fillon offered to pay nearly 700,000 euros to the National Assembly. The proposal dates back several months according to his lawyer, Me Antonin Lévy, who confirmed the information to Franceinfo on Tuesday November 12.
It was made, according to the council, shortly after the judgment of the Court of Cassation, on April 24, which ordered a new hearing to re-examine the sanctions imposed on François Fillon.
“Because if the Court of Cassation ruled his guilt definitive, it did not confirm the sentence of four years in prison, including one year, the fine of 375,000 euros and the sentence of ten years of ineligibility,” report our colleagues, specifying that the hearing is scheduled for November 25.
The former Prime Minister proposes to repay this sum, 679,989.32 euros exactly, over a period of ten years. This amount corresponds to the damages that he was “jointly” ordered to pay to the National Assembly with his wife Penelope and his former deputy Marc Joulaud by the Paris Court of Appeal on May 9, 2022: 679,989.32 euros to which must be added 10,000 euros in legal costs, details Bfmtv.
“Penelopegate”
The “Penelopegate” affair, which occurred during the campaign for the 2017 French presidential election, concerned suspicions of fictitious employment involving Penelope Fillon, wife of François Fillon. It began with an article in Le Canard chainé on January 25, 2017.
The newspaper notably affirmed that Penelope Fillon was paid 500,000 euros gross for jobs as a parliamentary attaché with her husband and his deputy Marc Joulaud between 1998 and 2007 and in 2012. But also 100,000 euros gross between 2012 and 2013 for a job as literary advisor to the Revue des Deux Mondes.
Facts contested by François Fillon.
The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) then opened a preliminary investigation into embezzlement of public funds, misuse of corporate assets and concealment of these crimes.
This affair, according to himself, cost him his accession to the Élysée.
