French ex-minister's wife charged in tax probe: source

PARIS, Aug 30: The estranged wife of France´s disgraced former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac has been charged for tax fraud and money laundering in the scandal that cost her husband his job, a judicial source said Friday.



Patricia Cahuzac was charged on Thursday, the source said.The dermatologist and her husband, a former plastic surgeon, ran a flourishing hair transplant salon in Paris. Jerome Cahuzac also served as an adviser to several pharmaceutical companies.[break]



The ex-minister, whose tasks in Socialist President Francois Hollande´s cabinet included battling tax fraud, initially denied allegations by French investigative news website Mediapart that he had funds in a Swiss bank account.



But he did a U-turn when prosecutors opened an official probe into the undeclared overseas account said to contain around 600,000 euros ($770,000).



He resigned on March 19 and has admitted to having the account for about two decades, in a scandal that dealt a major blow to Hollande´s government.

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