US arrest warrant for French minister's son over bad checks

Washington: The son of the French foreign minister is the subject of an arrest warrant for writing bad checks at a Las Vegas casino the night before his father assumed his position.

Thomas Fabius wrote bad checks totaling more than USD 3.5 million to cover gambling debts the night of May 15, 2012, according to the arrest warrant, obtained yesterday by AFP.

On May 16, 2012, his father, Laurent Fabius, was officially appointed France's foreign minister.

As a result of the warrant, issued May 2013, the younger Fabius risks arrest if he sets foot in the United States, a spokesman for Nevada's Clark County said.

Fabius, 33, who heads a financial consulting firm, has been reported to have spent millions of dollars in casinos in the past and was investigated in 2013 for fraud and money laundering over a shady real estate deal.