Four people were arrested and placed in custody on Monday as part of a fraud investigation into an events firm employed by France's conservative UMP party during Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 election campaign, police and legal sources said, reports Reuters.
The arrests, which included Bastien Millot, the former chief executive of the Bygmalion company, come a week after Sarkozy announced he would run for the presidency of the opposition UMP in a widely flagged come-back bid.
Sarkozy has stated he was not aware of any wrongdoing but some UMP members fear that this and other legal cases in which he is targeted make him too much of a political liability for him to be the party's presidential candidate in 2017.
The investigation is looking into allegations that Bygmalion was ordered by party officials to produce millions of euros' worth of fake invoices to cover up campaign cost over-runs. French law limits how much candidates can spend campaigning.
Read more of this report from Reuters.