Posted on 03/19/2013 11:15:55 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Jérôme Cahuzac, France's budget minister, has resigned after being placed under formal investigation for tax fraud and money laundering.
Mr Cahuzac, a cabinet heavyweight, had been tasked with fighting tax evasion. He is now under investigation for holding a secret Swiss bank account.
The resignation is an embarrassment and a blow to President François Hollande as his government seeks to redraft deficit reduction plans to maintain fiscal credibility with France's euro zone partners. Mr Cahuzac was responsible for making drastic government spending cuts.
He had repeatedly dismissed as "crazy" a report in December by French investigative news website Mediapart that he held an undisclosed account at the Swiss bank UBS until the start of 2010.
"I have never had an account in Switzerland or any other place abroad," he said at the time.
Mediapart alleged that Mr Cahuzac closed the account just days before becoming president of the National Assembly finance committee. He then "discreetly" paid a trip to Geneva to shift the undisclosed sums to "another tax haven in Asia", it claimed, citing "sources informed of the operation".
It had released a recording of a telephone call in which a male voice it said was Mr Cahuzac can be heard saying: "What bothers me is that I've still got this account open at UBS. UBS is not necessarily the most hidden of banks."
The public prosecutor said police laboratory tests showed the voice was "probably" that of Mr Cahuzac and that three witnesses had recognised his voice.
"In other words, the result of our analysis reinforces the hypothesis that Jerome Cahuzac is the unidentified speaker," the office of the Paris prosecutor said in a statement.
Europe Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been appointed his successor.
French prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into the affair in January, but the decision to
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Tax cheaters hammering the little people with draconian tax laws: just like in this country. :D:D:D:D
>>He had repeatedly dismissed as “crazy” a report in December by French investigative news website Mediapart that he held an undisclosed account at the Swiss bank UBS until the start of 2010.
Mediapart is a left-wing website, so give credit where it is due for outing him on this.
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