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|  Published Tuesday, June 30, 2020
guilty of fraud
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Parisian court on Monday found former French Prime Minister François Fillon guilty of using public money to pay his wife more than $1 million for work she never performed, reported Voice of America Journal.
According to the VOA report, Fillon was sentenced to five years in prison, three years suspended, and fined more than $423,000. He is also barred from running for public office for 10 years.
His wife, Penelope, was convicted as an accomplice. She was given a three-year suspended sentence and was also fined more than $423,000. Both are free pending appeal, which their lawyers say they will do.
''Naturally, this decision, which is not fair, is going to be appealed. … The ludicrous conditions under which this investigation was triggered, the scandalous conditions in which the discovery was opened, the surprising conditions in which the investigation was then run," said Antonin Levy, Fillon’s attorney.
Penelope Fillon’s attorney, Pierre Cornut-Gentille, said prosecutors failed to determine whether her activities were simply traditional help and support a politician’s wife gives her husband.
She said her duties included writing reports about local issues, reading mail, preparing speeches and meeting with voters — work she said allowed her to have a flexible schedule and still raise her children.
Prosecutors argued that Penelope Fillon’s salary was excessive for someone with little evidence that she ever worked.
Fillon’s lawyers argued that the state cannot interfere with how a politician sets up his office.
The scandal broke shortly before the 2017 French presidential election where Fillon went from being the front-runner to finishing in third place.
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