PARIS, July 7 (UPI) -- Nineteen defendants will appear in court in September to answer allegations of scandals surrounding France's student health insurance company during the 1990s.
Most of the defendants are charged with embezzling public funds or receiving stolen goods. They include a number of once-prominent members of France's Socialist party, including a former adviser of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the onetime No. 2 party member Jean-Christophe Cambadelis.
The alleged ring leader in the scam, former insurance company director Olivier Spithakis, is suspected of creating a rash of fake jobs as part of a tangled embezzling scam.
Known as the Menef, the health insurance company receives half its annual budget -- roughly $36 million -- from France's national health insurance coffers.
