Ex-French Ambassador Arrested with €350,000 Cash


Ex-French Ambassador Arrested with €350,000 Cash

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Former French ambassador Boris Boillon was arrested on July 31 at Paris’s Gare du Nord station, it emerged on Friday, as he attempted to board a train to Brussels with more than 350,000 euros in cash.

Former French ambassador Boris Boillon was arrested on July 31 at Paris’s Gare du Nord station, as he attempted to board a train to Brussels carrying more than 350,000 euros in cash, it emerged on Friday, France24 reported.

It seems like a spectacular fall from grace for a man who enjoyed such an illustrious political career. Fluent in Arabic, he served as his country’s ambassador in both Iraq and Tunisia. Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi referred to him as “my son,” and ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, for whom he worked as an advisor, affectionately called him “my little Arab”.

Boillon was stopped by customs as part of a routine check, according to the French investigative website Mediapart, which broke the story. When asked if he had any currency on him, the ex-diplomat said nothing about the hundreds of thousands of euros in his bag. A major faux-pas considering that French law requires all people entering or leaving the country to declare any sum of money equal to or exceeding the amount of 10,000 euros.

Boillon’s bag was subsequently searched, and lo and behold, it was stuffed with envelopes of cash.

The 43-year-old said that the cash was payment for past consulting work, which he claims nets him around 500,000 euros per year.

An investigation into the incident has since been opened. It remains to be seen, however, if French customs will believe Boillon’s simple explanation.

 

 

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