Cahuzac’s memory fails him at tax fraud inquiry

When Jérôme Cahuzac was France’s budget minister, his colleagues were astonished by his command of facts and figures.

Yesterday, in his second hearing before the parliamentary commission investigating the Hollande administration’s handling of Mr Cahuzac’s tax evasion, the former minister’s most striking feature was his feeble memory. “I don’t remember . . . I have no memory of it,” he said time and again, to the frustration of the members of the commission.

Mr Cahuzac was summoned a second time because last week his former boss, the finance minister Pierre Moscovici, told the commission of a meeting at the Élysée Palace last January 16th attended by himself, president François Hollande, prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Mr Cahuzac.

According to Mr Moscovici, the four men discussed sending a request to Swiss authorities asking whether Mr Cahuzac had a secret account in Switzerland, as the investigative website Mediapart had reported in December.

“Pierre Moscovici never informed me of this procedure,” Mr Cahuzac had testified on June 26th.

But the ministry’s inquiry was addressed to the wrong bank, and covered the wrong period of time. The Swiss response seemed to exonerate Mr Cahuzac.

The conservative opposition claims Messers Hollande and Moscovici knew about Mr Cahuzac’s offshore accounts, and engaged in a coverup. “François Hollande was the best informed person,” about the accounts, charges Charles de Courson, the president of the commission.

The finance ministry claimed it erected a “great wall of China” between Mr Cahuzac, who continued as budget minister for months after the Mediapart report, and the investigation concerning him. That “wall” seemed to crumble when Mr Moscovici revealed Mr Cahuzac’s presence at the January 16th meeting.

Conflicting testimony
Mr Cahuzac yesterday swore under oath that he had "no memory" of such an encounter. The commission went in circles around the conflicting testimony by the finance minister and his former budget minister. Tension between socialist and conservative deputies runs so high that it is doubtful they will be able to agree on a conclusion in October.

Mr Cahuzac acknowledged the web he wove in deceiving France’s highest officials. “The choice I made by lying at the outset was catastrophic. I am paying a very high price today, and I am trying to do it with as much dignity as possible.”

Dignity? Or arrogance? During his previous hearing, Mr Cahuzac refused to answer questions on the grounds it would compromise a separate judiciary investigation into his finances. The opposition deputy Philippe Houillon accused him of “behaving like a god on Olympus, judged by mortals”. Yesterday, he was a haughty old man, stricken with a failing memory.

Charged with perjury
"Today we've demonstrated the flagrant lie of your first hearing," the opposition deputy Georges Fenech said to Mr Cahuzac. "You're hiding behind memory loss; we won't accept that." If the lies were proven, the president of the commission would recommend that Cahuzac be charged with perjury, an offence punishable by five years in prison and a €75,000 fine.

“Neither irony nor threats will make me say things that I don’t remember,” Mr Cahuzac replied.