Overview

• The appeals court also barred him from seeking public office for five years as part of the penalty
• His wife, Penelope Fillon, retained a two-year suspended sentence and the same €375,000 fine
• The June 17 ruling overturned his original 2022 one-year jail term after France’s highest court ordered a fresh sentencing trial
• The Penelopegate affair derailed his 2017 presidential bid and has fueled probes into other officials’ misuse of public funds
• Fillon’s lawyer hailed the outcome as vindication and the ex-premier maintained that phantom parliamentary roles were once widespread among lawmakers