Why am I not surprised? Chirac linked to £30m secret bank account

Chirac linked to £30m secret bank account
By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 2:32am BST 24/05/2007

French investigating magistrates have acquired "explosive" documents suggesting that "large sums of money" were funnelled into a secret Japanese bank account in the name of Jacques Chirac, it was claimed yesterday.

	Mr Chirac stands to lose his presidential immunity in weeks

The judges have bank statements and more than a hundred notes written by a former French intelligence chief, Gen Philippe Rondot, on the subject, but were unable to consult them until Mr Chirac stepped down as president last week.

According to the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, one of the dossiers bears the title "Japanese Affair," with two others called "Affair of PR1" and "Affair of PR2" - PR meaning president.

Such was the nature of the judges' findings that they held an emergency meeting on Monday and Tuesday and hauled in Gen Rondot for questioning on the alleged bank account, the magazine said.

The existence of such an account, into which £30 million had been paid over a number of years, was first mooted last May by Gen Rondot during questioning over a separate spy scandal.

Gen Rondot told judges that French intelligence agents had stumbled on the accounts at the Tokyo Sowa Bank in 1996 when investigating the financial credentials of a Japanese businessman and friend of Mr Chirac who wanted to invest in France.

Mr Chirac took the exceptional step of denying that he had a secret bank account.