Fillon under scrutiny over cash for bespoke suits

Conservative French presidential hopeful Francois Fillon, already dogged by a fake jobs scandal, faced new scrutiny Sunday over a mystery benefactor reportedly paying for his bespoke suits.
Since 2012, Fillon has received clothing worth nearly 48,500 euros ($51,800) furnished by jet-set tailor Arnys, the weekly Journal du Dimanche (JDD) said in a report denounced by Fillon's spokesman as part of a "gutter campaign" against the candidate. The report came just six weeks ahead of the first round of the presidential election and with Fillon, 63, facing charges over the fake jobs scandal.
Of the total sum for the suits, 35,500 euros was paid in cash, the paper said, adding that a young woman generally delivered the money to the chic Parisian tailor that has catered to the likes of Andy Warhol and Yves Saint Laurent.
An order for two suits completed in early February however was paid for by cheque, signed by a "generous friend" who asked to remain anonymous, the paper said.
"I paid at the request of Francois Fillon," JDD quoted the cheque's signatory as saying, adding: "by the way, without receiving the slightest thanks since then." The former prime minister's spokesman Luc Chatel reacted angrily to the report. "How far are they going to take this?" he said.
"Are they going to check whether his grandmother had a Russian loan, and if he declared it in his assets statement?" Chatel fumed on French radio.
A member of Fillon's entourage confirmed that one of his friends gifted him two Arnys suits in February, adding that there was "nothing reprehensible" about it.
"We wonder how far these malicious intrusions into his private life will go," the source said. He dismissed as "outlandish" the paper's assertion that cash payments were made on Fillon's behalf for other Arnys clothing.
"No serious tailor's shop would accept cash payments in such amounts," he said.
The store itself refused to answer queries from the JDD.
Fillon's campaign went into a tailspin in January when the satirical and investigative French weekly Le Canard Enchaine revealed that he had arranged for allegedly fake parliamentary jobs for his wife Penelope worth hundreds of thousands of euros.