Axed French budget minister admits secret foreign bank account

Former French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac has made a startling confession that he did indeed have an undisclosed foreign bank account, as originally revealed by Mediapart four months ago. Cahuzac, who resigned last month after a judicial investigation was launched into the affair, used his own blog to admit that he has held a foreign bank account “for some 20 years” and that it latterly contained 600,000 euros. In his statement, Cahuzac, who had earlier confessed to the two judges leading the investigation into what was until today suspicions that he had a secret foreign account, said he had been trapped in a 'spiral of lies' and begged the French public to forgive him. The former minister was immediately placed under investigation on Tuesday, a legal status that precedes charges, for "laundering the proceeds of tax fraud" and for "laundering funds originating from advantages provided by a company whose services or products are reimbursed by the Social Security [welfare system]”.