The investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) into suspicions of embezzlement of public funds by former Prime Minister François Fillon in the employment of a parliamentary assistant for the writing of a book is closed, indicated Friday the public prosecutor, confirming information from BFMTV. The investigation was opened in 2017 and focused on the conditions of employment of the writer and philosopher Maël Renouard, between 2013 and 2015, as a parliamentary assistant.
As the Buzzfeed site revealed in 2017, Maël Renouard, François Fillon’s “pen” when the latter was at Matignon, had been hired to write Do, program book of the candidate for the presidential election published in September 2015. The investigation, conducted by the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF), aimed to determine whether the contract of Maël Renouard’s parliamentary assistant, paid from public funds during this period, could be justified by this mission alone. “The preliminary investigation was recently closed and opened to the adversarial process,” the PNF said on Friday. A source familiar with the matter referred to “a real legal debate” existing.
“François Fillon was heard and confronted with Maël Renouard”
“The parties have a period of one month (which may be extended) to report their observations on a possible embezzlement of public funds and to formulate their requests for action. It is only at the end that the public prosecutor will make its orientation decision, ”said the PNF. According to BFMTV, “François Fillon was heard and confronted with Maël Renouard” during the investigation carried out by the OCLCIFF. “He defended himself by indicating that the writer had not been hired only for the needs of this book, which the main interested party would however have disputed”, affirms the continuous news channel.
Me Antonin Lévy, lawyer for François Fillon, declined to comment. “I don’t know the contents of the file yet,” he said. François Fillon was sentenced on May 9 by the Paris Court of Appeal in the case of the fictitious jobs of his wife Pénélope to four years’ imprisonment, including one year, a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility. The couple had announced their intention to appeal.