French investigating magistrates who are probing the finances of the disgraced former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac have asked Reyl, the Swiss family banking group, to send representatives to attend a hearing.

French investigating magistrates who are probing the finances of the disgraced former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac have asked Reyl, the Swiss family banking group, to send representatives to attend a hearing. The Paris public prosecutor, according to Reuter's, has been investigating the bank for being a conduit for the laundered proceeds of tax evasion. The case is part of a slow process of revelation regarding French politicians' secret accounts which has damaged the French government and its drive to cut down on tax evasion. Cahuzac himself admitted in March that he had stowed €600,000 away in a secret Swiss bank account, and promptly resigned office. A statement from the Geneva public prosecutor in April said that UBS and Reyl were the two banks involved. It said Cahuzac's Swiss account dated from 1992. The press speculated that it was moved from UBS to Reyl. According to Cahuzac's lawyer, it was transferred to Singapore in 2009.

It was at Reyl that  Pierre Condamin-Gerbier, the private banker and whistle-blower, worked. He testified in front of French parliamentary investigators in the summer, stating that he had a list of French politicians with secret funds in Swiss accounts – something his lawyer now says he denies. He then came home to Switzerland and was arrested on suspicion of 'dealing in commercial information.' He was released the day before it was announced that French magistrates wanted to speak to Reyl.