French media have reported that a fake jobs scandal that embroiled defeated rightwing presidential candidate Francois Fillon in January has claimed a new victim, a billionaire who reportedly employed the scandal-ridden wife of the Republican politician.

Axar.az reports that the Journal du Dimanche newspaper said on Sunday that Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, a businessman and a close friend of Fillon, employed Fillon's wife Penelope at his magazine La Revue des Deux Mondes from May 2012 to December 2013 with a pre-tax monthly salary of 5,000 euros (USD 5,500) a month.

Three investigating judges had reportedly summoned Ladreit de Lacharriere late on Friday and charged him with misuse of corporate assets.

Fillon suffered a major blow to his aspirations to win the April-May presidential election when the newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported in January that Penelope had received salaries worth hundreds of thousands of euros in 15 years for a parliamentary job that she did not really perform. Fillon insisted that the reports and the following investigation were politically motivated.