François Fillon faces fresh allegation over undeclared €50,000 loan

Embattled French presidential candidate François Fillon was hit by more claims of financial irregularities on Tuesday after French weekly Le Canard Enchainé claimed he received an interest-free, undeclared loan of €50,000 from a billionaire businessman in 2013.

Le Canard Enchaîné reported that Fillion “did not deem it necessary” to report the 2013 loan from Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière to a state transparency watchdog.

Fillon’s lawyer told the paper that he had fully repaid the loan. The paper said Fillon explained to investigators that he had simply forgotten to mention the loan in his declaration.

Five weeks ago, Le Canard Enchaîné broke the biggest political scandal of the French presidential campaign when it said that Fillon had allegedly secured his wife generously paid, taxpayer-funded “fake jobs” as a parliamentary assistant over 15 years. He was also reported to have secured similar jobs for his children. Fillon, the presidential candidate for the rightwing party Les Républicains, is now the subject of a full investigation by judges on several possible charges. He denies breaking the law.

Ladreit de Lacharriere, whose magazine La Revue des Deux Mondes once had Fillon's wife on its payroll, was given France's highest state honour by Fillon in 2011.

Judges are looking at whether Ladreit de Lacharrière paid Penelope Fillon about €5,000 a month before tax between May 2012 and December 2013 in return for being recommended by Fillon for France’s highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.