Milan, 26 Nov. (LaPresse) – The French Court of Cassation has rejected the appeal filed by former President Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bygmalion case, for which he was sentenced on 14 February 2024 by the Paris Court of Appeal to one year in prison, including six months of mandatory imprisonment, for the illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. The conviction is therefore final. In its ruling, the Court of Cassation explained ‘that the illegal financing of an election campaign has been established.’ ‘In fact, the candidate personally gave his consent to his staff to cover the campaign expenses on his behalf, even though he knew that these expenses would exceed the limit set by law,’ the ruling added. This was reported by the broadcaster Bfmtv. Investigations revealed that, in order to conceal the excessive expenses of his election campaign (almost €43 million against a maximum amount allowed by law of €22.5 million), a system of double invoicing had been put in place, attributing most of the cost of the meetings to the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, which later became LR, under the cover of fictitious agreements with the events company Bygmalion.
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