Paris--Jean-Marie Le Pen, the elderly founder and former chief of France's far-right Front National, hid 2.2 million euros ($2.4 million) in a secret account in Switzerland, news website Mediapart reported Monday.
The claims come amid a bitter feud between Le Pen and his daughter Marine, who now leads the party, which has been facing a string of investigations into campaign funding both by French and European authorities.
Le Pen "kept a hidden account at HSBC, as well as the (private Swiss) CBH bank through a trust placed under the legal responsibility of his butler, Gerald Gerin," the investigative website said.
"Of the 2.2 million euros placed in the trust account, 1.7 million were kept as gold bars and coins," it added.
"Prosecutors in Nanterre (west of Paris) received this information from the anti-money laundering unit Tracfin," Mediapart said.
Contacted by AFP, neither CBH nor HSBC would comment on the report. Le Pen also refused to comment, while FN Vice President Florian Philippot told French TV channel iTELE he knew nothing about the claim.
"I don't know whether it's true, but knowing Jean-Marie Le Pen, I would find it strange if it were," Philippot said.
"I've spoken to Marine Le Pen on the phone. She is very surprised and doesn't know anything about it either. Like the rest of us, she is waiting for Jean-Marie Le Pen to clarify and explain," he added.
In 2013, the former paratrooper admitted he kept an account in Switzerland at UBS that he had opened in 1981.
The longtime FN leader and current European parliament member has been under investigation since late 2013 over undeclared assets estimated at 1.1 million euros.
A separate probe also underway focuses on the FN's campaign financing since Marine Le Pen's takeover -- with five people and the events company Riwal already charged -- while the party has also been referred to the EU's anti-corruption agency.
AFP
