France's disgraced former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac went on trial Monday for stashing millions abroad while chasing tax cheats at home. The 64-year-old former rising star in the French Socialist Party faces charges of tax evasion and money laundering as well as under-declaring the value of his fortune when he took up his post in 2012. He and his ex-wife Patricia Menard - with whom he ran a lucrative hair transplant clinic - each face up to seven years in jail and one million euros ($1.1 million) in fines if convicted.
Also in the dock are their advisers, Swiss banker Francois Reyl and Dubai-based lawyer Philippe Houman. The Reyl bank of Geneva, which in 2009 allegedly helped Cahuzac transfer funds to Singapore to avoid detection by French tax authorities, is also being tried. The story of the fraud, carried out between 1992 and 2013, reads like a cross between a cheap airport novel and an international financial crime manual.