PARIS, July 5 (UPI) -- Spending scandals felled two members of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Cabinet Sunday night.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sarkozy had accepted the resignations of Christian Blanc, secretary of state for the greater Paris area, and Alain Joyandet, secretary of state for overseas development.
Blanc had been taking heat for running up $15,000 in cigar expenses, while Joyandet was under fire for, among other issues, sticking taxpayers with a $143,000 bill by taking a private jet for an official trip to the Caribbean, the Times said.
"As a man of honor, I cannot accept being the victim of allegations. After much thought, I have decided to leave the government," Joyandet said on his blog.
"Not one euro of public money was used toward my personal wealth or that of my close family."
Yet another Cabinet official, Labor Minister Eric Woerth, has been under scrutiny for his ties to L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who recently was accused of tax evasion. Woerth has acknowledged his wife worked for a firm managing the cosmetics billionaire's finances.
