“Naoko” employed his wife. The court confirmed the guilt of the former French prime minister

Today, the French Court of Cassation definitively confirmed the guilt of former Prime Minister François Fillon in the case of fictitious employment of his wife. But at the same time, the court ordered a new trial on the amount of the sentence and the fine for the 70-year-old politician, who led three French governments between 2007 and 2012. The new trial before the Court of Appeal in Paris, which is a lower instance than the Court of Cassation, should begin in the coming months, she informed agency AFP.

The case, known in the French media as Penelopegate, was triggered in 2017 by Canard enchaîné magazine’s revelation that Fillon was “fakely” employing his wife, Penelope. As a fictitious assistant, he then paid her a total of one million euros from public funds – which is roughly 25 million crowns.

The scandal then rocked Fillon’s chances of success in the presidential election, paving the way for centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron to win.

In June 2020, the Court of First Instance sentenced Fillon to a five-year sentence, of which two years were suspended. The politician was also barred from running for elected office for ten years and had to pay a fine of 375,000 euros – 9.4 million crowns – which was to serve in part as compensation for the damage caused to the National Assembly.

Penelope Fillon walked away from court as an accomplice with a three-year suspended sentence and the same fine. Both appealed the verdicts.

In May 2022, the Court of Appeal reduced Fillon’s sentence to four years in prison, of which one year was suspended, upheld the fine and ban on public office. The Fillon couple appealed again, this time to the Court of Cassation. Today, he confirmed Fillon’s guilt and the amount of the sentence, while he confirmed only his guilt in the case of the ex-prime minister and ordered a retrial on the amount of the sentence at the appeals court in Paris.