Trial begins of tax dodger Jerome Cahuzac who took on tax evaders in France

Jerome Cahuzac was the face of France’s fight against tax evaders — until he was forced to acknowledge that he himself was dodging taxes, hiding money in tax havens around the world.

President François Hollande’s one-time budget minister is now facing the prospect of prison as his trial — alongside that of his ex-wife and others with whom he had financial dealings — opened.

The 63-year-old is accused of financing a lavish lifestyle by fraudulently concealing €687,000 of income from French tax authorities in 2009-12 and laundering money in 2003-13 through foreign bank accounts based in tax havens including Switzerland, Panama, the Seychelles, and Singapore.

Cahuzac triggered the first scandal under Hollande’s administration.

He faces up to seven years in prison and a €1m fine if he is convicted of tax fraud.

The trial’s opening day attracted demonstrators who arrived at the courthouse carrying nearly 200 chairs taken from banks they accuse of participating in tax evasion.

Cahuzac’s lawyers used the first hearing to ask the court to postpone the trial, arguing that a defendant shouldn’t be under both a criminal and a tax procedure at the same time.

If it accepts Cahuzac’s argument, the trial could be postponed for months.

After strongly denying any fraud for months and publicly lying to parliament, on television, to the people, and to his government colleagues, Cahuzac eventually admitted his wrongdoing in April 2013, saying he had been “trapped in a lying spiral” and that he was “devastated by remorse.”

On trial alongside Cahuzac are his ex-wife; a banker; a legal adviser; and bank Reyl, a Swiss establishment accused of tax fraud and/or money laundering.

For his transactions with bank Reyl, Cahuzac used a codename, Birdie, in a nod to his passion for golf.

His ex-wife, Patricia Menard, a 60-year-old dermatologist, is accused of hiding €2.5m from the French tax authorities until 2013 and laundering money in the British tax haven of the Isle of Man and in Switzerland, allowing her to buy two London apartments estimated at around €3m overall.

Menard already paid €2.17m in back taxes to the French tax authorities last year.