Fillon probe widened to suspected forgery
PARIS, France (AFP) — French presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s legal problems deepened yesterday, with financial prosecutors expanding a probe into payments to his family to suspected “aggravated fraud, forgery and use of forgeries”, a judicial source said.
Investigators are looking at whether Fillon and his wife Penelope forged documents to try to justify the around 700,000 euros (US$757,000) she earned for a suspected fake job as a parliamentary assistant, the source said.
Fillon, 63, has already been charged with misuse of public funds but has refused to bow out of the running for president.
Penelope Fillon’s lawyer Pierre Cornut-Gentille rejected the new allegation, telling AFP: “There is not the slightest bit of forgery in this case.”
He denounced what he called a violation of confidentiality during an ongoing investigation. “We won’t defend ourselves before facing the court,” he said.