Bygmalion

The trio worked for PR firm Bygmalion and a subsidiary which organised events for former president's failed re-election bid in 2012.

The arrests are part of a fraud investigation into an events firm employed by the UMP party during Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 election campaign.

Following 'active corruption' claims, a fresh investigation is looking into the financing of former president's failed 2012 re-election bid.

The head of the parliamentary group of France’s main opposition party, the conservative UMP, faces a stormy meeting with his MP colleagues on Tuesday after Mediapart’s revelations that, without informing them, he secretly lent their cash-strapped party 3 million euros from what are largely public funds destined for financing the group’s parliamentary activities.  The scandal has outraged many within the UMP, and follows Mediapart’s earlier revelations that the party used faked invoices to hide 17 million euros of illegal overspending on the 2012 presidential election campaign of its candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy. Fabrice Arfi, Mathilde Mathieu and Ellen Salvi report.

Jean-Francois Copé quits leadership of the UMP party amid an escalating scandal of fraudulent funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign.

Party boss Jean-François Copé, whose friends run the company, dismisses claims as politically motivated on eve of Euro elections.