Sarkozy's plans 'to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund'

• Fraud police found details of move and business plan in raid on home
• Sarkozy is under investigation for corruption in France
• He will be latest Frenchman to escape potential top French tax rate of 75%
• Couple would become London's most high profile Gallic celebrities
• Sarkozy would hope for fund support from French entrepreneur Alain Minc

Plans for Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni's move were unearthed in a raid by fraud police

Suddenly a handshake from David Cameron probably seems an awful lot more inviting.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy could become the next wealthy Frenchman to flee to Britain over his country’s looming tax hikes on the rich.
Mr Sarkozy – who famously snubbed the Prime Minister’s attempt to shake his hand after Mr Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty in 2011 – is reportedly planning to move to London to set up a £800million investment fund.
The 57-year-old, who was ousted from office last June, has amassed a fortune from £150,000-an-hour public speaking engagements and is now said to be trying to raise capital from investors.
If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.
He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.
But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.
Details of the planned move were uncovered during a raid by fraud police on Sarkozy’s Paris mansion last June.
It came within weeks of Mr Sarkozy losing his immunity against prosecution after being defeated by Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the May presidential election.
Now the hugely respected investigative news site Mediapart reports that the ‘first draft’ of Mr Sarkozy’s London project was found by detectives examining his computer files.
A judge has since made Sarkozy an assisted witness in the so-called Bettencourt Affair, in which he is accused of using illegal cash from France’s richest woman to fund his 2007 election campaign.

Mr Sarkozy is said to have taken the money from Liliane Bettencourt, the I’ Oreal heiress – a claim the politician denies, but for which he could still receive a prison sentence.
He is also being investigated over numerous other funding scandals, including one linked to arms sales to Pakistan, and another in which he is said to have used millions in taxpayers’ money to pay friends to produce opinion polls while he was in office.
Mediapart suggests that the planned London move would create a ‘conflict of interest’ – not only because Sarkozy is being investigated, but because a former French president should not choose the UK as a base to make his fortune.

If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman (left) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (right) will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in their home country

Sarkozy (left) and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (right) would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city

Bernard Arnault, the luxury goods magnate and France’s richest man who owns property in London, and Hollywood star Gerard Depardieu are among Frenchmen who have come under intense criticism for trying to escape Mr Hollande’s new tax regime.
The socialist is introducing a top tax rate of 75 per cent on anyone earning more than 1 million euros a year because he disapproves of the kind of vast profits made by speculators in places like the City of London.
Mr Sarkozy, however, is a committed capitalist, whose close friends include former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has himself earned millions since leaving office.

The former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage

The French former president’s new private equity fund would aim to raise 1 billion euros – something he hopes to achieve with the help of French entrepreneur and political advisor Alain Minc.
Mr Sarkozy has recently had meetings with numerous movers and shakers in the world of high finance during high-profile trips to places like Qatar and London. But today Mr Sarkozy played down the Mediapart reports through his aides, with one saying that they were the result of ‘intellectual constructs’.
Like Mr Blair, the former head of state has always been extremely secretive about his financial dealings, and would be unlikely to discuss a wealth fund in public.

The French former president¿s new private equity fund would aim to raise 1 billion euros ¿ something he hopes to achieve with the help of French entrepreneur and political advisor Alain Minc