French Appeals Court Upholds Marine Le Pen’s €2.8 Million Embezzlement Conviction
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 13
French Appeals Court Upholds Marine Le Pen’s €2.8 Million Embezzlement Conviction
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 13
Summary
A French appeals court confirmed Marine Le Pen’s guilt over a fake-jobs scheme that diverted €2.8 million in European Parliament funds to support her party’s operations in France.
Judges said the fraud ran for 11 years across three parliamentary terms, with bogus parliamentary assistant posts including Le Pen’s bodyguard and longtime personal aide.
Le Pen’s sentence was reduced to three years in prison, with two suspended and one to be served under electronic monitoring, plus a €100,000 fine.
The court also barred her from public office for 45 months, 30 of them suspended, while fining National Rally €2 million, half suspended, after convicting the party as a legal entity.
Le Pen has appealed to France’s highest court, which pauses the tagging measure for now and leaves open a possible 2027 presidential run.