French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been winning praise in his home country for his masterful handling of the banking crisis. Although he could rescue several banks from bankruptcy, when it came to his personal bank account he couldn't save his money.
Financial thieves who had hacked Sarkozy's bank account were withdrawing small sums of money in the last few months. The President noticed the theft last month when he checked his bank account statement.
French Cabinet's spokesman Luc Chatel confirmed the incident and
said:
This was a classic case of data privacy, likely by one or several low-key swindlers. Mr Sarkozy's bank might face some penalty over the misuse of personal data. The incident proves that this system of checking (bank accounts) via the Internet isn't infallible.
The thieves withdrew money totalling several hundreds dollars. French President receives an annual salary of approximately $300,000.
Sarkozy faced a lot of criticism last year for increasing his salary by a whopping 140 per cent.
