Bruni-Sarkozy threatens to sue over costly website claims

France’s former first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has lashed out against claims that taxpayers were picking up the tab for her charity foundation's website for two years while Nicolas Sarkozy was in office.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy RFI

Alongside promoting her newest album “Little French Songs”, the millionaire heiress is also threatening to file a complaint against the creator of an online petition being hosted on change.org that demands she gives back the money totalling more than 400,000 euros.

As of Monday afternoon, the site garnered more than 80,000 signatures.

Bruni-Sarkozy’s lawyer Richard Malka slammed the allegations as “imaginary” and “false”, and added that the site in question, carlabrunisarkozy.org, was dismantled in May 2012 after Sarkozy lost to President François Hollande.

A different version of the website showcasing Bruni-Sarkozy's charity programs is still live.

The petition was started last Thursday by Paris-based web developer Nicolas Bousquet who was outraged by a mid-July report by the Court of Auditors that reportedly revealed that public funds were paying for two years of site upkeep for Bruni-Sarkozy’s personal website.

Bousquet said "anyone could have built the site for less than €10,000."

"I don't think I'm badmouthing Madame Bruni-Sarkozy in anyway," Bousquet told RFI. "So I hope they will on the same side of the law, and they won't start suing me for something so trivial."

This is not the first fiscal blunder to hit the couple.

Late last year, Sarkozy was found guilty of surpassing the official limit on presidential campaign spending in 2012, leading him to resign from France’s top constitutional body.