Morgan Stanley Reportedly Offers Nicolas Sarkozy €250,000 For Appearance

Morgan Stanley has reportedly offered Nicolas Sarkozy €250,000 (about $312,000) for a 45-minute job that will involve making a speech and posing for photographs at a conference, the French newspaper Le Canard Enchainé reports, according to several news outlets.

Though the former president of France lost the presidential runoff to Francois Hollande in May, Sarkozy has remained in the spotlight in recent months.

In July, investigators searched Sarkozy's home and office in response to allegations that he may have accepted illegal funds from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt to raise money for his 2007 presidential campaign, the Associated Press reports. Sarkozy is also being sued by the families of victims of a 2003 car bombing in Karachi, several of whom were French contractors, but he has denied any wrongdoing in either incident.

French management agent Nicolas Teil said that although the fee supposedly offered by Morgan Stanley is high, it shouldn't be altogether surprising in light of Sarkozy's experience as the leader of a powerful country.

"As a headhunter I can see why a company would spend so much money for his economic expertise," Teil said, according to both the Local and the International Business Times.

The news sources note that Sarkozy seems to be following in the footsteps of other former heads of state who have gone on to make large sums of money after politics, including former British prime minister Tony Blair, who reportedly receives £2.5 million from JP Morgan for his expertise.

Former president Bill Clinton has been out of office for more than a decade but his most lucrative year in terms of speaking fees was 2011, when he brought in $13.4 million, CNN notes.

The Daily Mail notes that such moves don't always sit well with the public.

Correction: A previous headline for this article incorrectly identified the bank as JP Morgan.