French police have found nearly two million euros stolen from France’s central bank, where they were supposed to have been destroyed. They uncovered the haul when 500,000 euros was found buried in a garden in central France, reports RFI.
Two suspects have been charged* with theft and receiving stolen goods after police dug up a bag containing 500,000 euros in the garden of a house in Vic-le-Comte in the mountainous Auvergne region.
The find led investigators to a further 1,300,000 euros in a bag in a different house, whose owner appears to have been unaware of their contents.
One of the suspects, both of whom are in their 50s, is reported to have burnt some other notes.
The two suspects’ wives have been placed under judicial supervision.
At the end of August two Banque de France employees were fired, accused of being involved in the disappearance of a number of bags of used notes, according to the regional paper La Montagne.
Read more of this report from RFI.
*Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being 'charged'. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.