Jean-Jacques Augier is Hollande's former campaign treasurer. He's in the media spotlight for holding offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.
The news comes hot on the heels of details that Hollande's ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac has been charged with fraud.
Distancing himself from Augier, Hollande said, "I know nothing of these activities and if they don't conform to fiscal law, I ask the administration to take the necessary measures".
Le Monde reported that Hollande's ex-treasurer became a shareholder in a Cayman Islands company in 2005. Augier has completely refuted the claims. "I am categorical that I've done nothing illegal. I've never had any direct personal involvement with the Cayman Islands, nor would I gain any fiscal advantage by doing so".
Details of a massive investigation of global offshore accounts have just been released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The group used 90 journalists across 47 countries, employing the latest hi-tech data to sift through 2.5 million documents over the last 30 years.
Michael Hudson is the Senior Editor of the ICIJ. In an interview with euronews he said, "When you have a lack of transparency, when you have these complex systems that are set up, it is very easy for people that are up to no good, it's easy for them to get away with bad things when you have such ironclad secrecy".
The group believes the amount of data leaked is 160 times greater than the 2010 Wikileaks scandal which unearthed a large volume of politically sensitive U.S. State Department documents.
Source: Euronews
