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Claude Fording, former secretary general of Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace, has just been imprisoned in the prison of Health, on the grounds that he does not reimburse quickly enough the damages for which he was sentenced in 2017.
The former right-hand man of Nicolas Sarkozy has been imprisoned in the Health prison. Justice considers that Claude Fording does not pay back what is owed quickly enough. In 2017, he was sentenced for embezzlement of public funds to two years in prison, one of which was 105,000 euros in damages and 75,000 euros in fines. Between 2002 and 2004, Claude Fording is Nicolas Sarkozy’s chief of staff at the Interior Ministry. He draws from the envelope of the police investigation costs to give himself and his collaborators additional salaries.
A debt of 115,000 euros
Claude Fording benefited from a penalty adjustment on condition of paying his debt. Today, he still owes 115,000 euros. Justice therefore decided to imprison him. 3,000 euros are seized each month on his retirement. “If he had had the means to pay in advance, he would have done and avoided the prison box”, pleads his lawyer, Me Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, for whom Claude Fording can’t pay off debt any faster. The justice, meanwhile, considered that he had other sources of income and therefore decided to imprison him.