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Minister's son in trouble over $3.5m Vegas debt

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Minister's son in trouble over $3.5m Vegas debt
Photo: Brenn Moyan/AFP

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius might have an awkward call to make to his American counterpart after his son landed in hot water after racking up $3.5million of gambling debt in Las Vegas, before writing dodgy checks to cover the losses.

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The son of the French foreign minister is the subject of an arrest warrant for writing bad cheques at a Las Vegas casino the night before his father assumed his position.

Thomas Fabius wrote bad checks totaling more than $3.5 million to cover gambling debts the night of May 15, 2012, according to the arrest warrant, obtained Thursday by AFP.

According to reports the 33-year-old spent a crazy night in Vegas the night of May 15th 2012, the day before his father Laurent Fabius, was officially appointed France's foreign minister.

It is not clear whether he might have been celebrating the imminent news or making sure he provided he father wit ha stern test of his diplomatic skills.

During his debauched night Fabius junior paid for gambling tokens at various casinos around town using his cheque book from various banks, of which Société Géneral was one.

In total nine checks of between $100,000 a million dollars were written out over the course of the night at Casinos including the Palazzo. The problem was Fabius didn't have the funds to back them up. 

As a result of the warrant, issued May 2013, the younger Fabius risks arrest if he sets foot in the United States, a spokesman for Nevada's Clark County told AFP.

Fabius, 33, who heads a financial consulting firm, has been reported to have spent millions of dollars in casinos in the past and was investigated in 2013 for fraud and money laundering over a shady real estate deal.


(Laurent Fabius might have to enter into negotiations with John Kerry over his son's debt. AFP)

Fabius is not the first French politician to feel perhaps a little embarrassed by their offspring.

Current French health minister Marisol Touraine had the ignominy of seeing her son imprisoned in 2013 for extortion.

And earlier this year The Local reported how former PM Dominique de Villepin could have been forgiven for feeling a little red faced after his daughter posed topless for a French lad's magazine.

 

 

French president François Hollande had to deal with a very public outburst by his son against his ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler as well as his youngest son who made a series about drugs and prostitutes.

Nicolas Sarkozy also came underfire when it emerged his 23-year-son was seeking to become head of La Défense – the financial district on the edge of Paris.

 

Perhaps the French politician most embarrassed by their child was François Mitterrand, who kept his illegitimate daughter a secret for years.

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