Former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac on Monday implicated a former French prime minister at the start of a high-profile tax fraud and money laundering case in Paris, reports FRANCE 24.
Cahuzac, who is on trial for hiding his wealth in tax havens for years, told judges he opened his first secret bank account in Switzerland in 1992 in order to fund the political activities of Michel Rocard.
Rocard served as prime minister under former president François Mitterrand between 1988 and 1991. He then went on to become the leader of the Socialist Party and a European Member of Parliament.
Cahuzac claimed on Monday that US-pharmaceutical firm Pfizer made two clandestine payments to Rocard using the Swiss account via an unnamed intermediary in 1993.
“The money could not come from the laboratory’s official bank accounts,” the disgraced ex-minister said.
Charges of tax fraud and money laundering forced Cahuzac to resign in 2013 in one of the biggest political scandals under Socialist President Francois Hollande.
At the time, Cahuzac was leading the government's fight against tax evasion.
The 64-year-old former cosmetic surgeon is accused of concealing at least 687,000 euros income from tax authorities between 2009 and 2012.
He's also accused of laundering money between 2003 and 2013 through foreign bank accounts in Switzerland and Singapore, and phony companies in Panama and the Seychelles.
He faces up to seven years in prison and a 1 million-euro fine if convicted. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
The fraud helped him finance a lavish lifestyle, such as expensive vacations, court documents show. Investigators discovered that Cahuzac paid bills to one luxury hotel for a total of 127,000 euros for several stays with his ex-wife and children.
His former spouse wife Patricia Ménard, as well as a banker and a legal advisor, are also facing money laundering charges at the same trial.