Former French President Jacques Chirac won't go to prison for diverting €1.4 million ($1.8 million) from City Hall as mayor of Paris, but his conviction on graft charges puts him in an unsavory club with Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain, the last French head of state found guilty of a crime. Petain was convicted of treason and sentenced to death (though that was later commuted to life in prison). Chirac, for his part, diverted public money to pay cronies who didn't work for the city when he was mayor of paris between 1977 and 1995, Reuters reports. He received a suspended two-year sentence, though he faced the possibility of 10 years behind bars. Their crimes were a few orders of magnitude apart, but still, nobody wants to be ranked with someone convicted of treason for cooperating with the fascist regime that invaded France.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at amartin at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Adam Martin