French presidential hopeful Fillon accused of giving his family well-paid fake jobs

Paris

CONSERVATIVE candidate Francois Fillon was on Wednesday fighting fresh claims he gave his family highly-paid fake jobs, a scandal threatening to derail his bid to become French president later this year.

The Canard Enchaine newspaper alleged in its new edition that Mr Fillon obtained jobs as parliamentary aides for his children as well as his wife Penelope that paid a total of around one million euros (S$1.5 million).

The fresh claims came as investigators raided parliament and seized documents as part of a preliminary probe into a first set of charges on fake jobs the paper levelled against Mr Fillon last week.

Mr Fillon, 62, was the long-time front-runner in the French presidential race and had been widely forecast to face far-right le…