FACTBOX: Legal investigations facing France's Chirac

(Reuters) - Former French President Jacques Chirac was placed under formal investigation on Wednesday for embezzlement of public funds during his time as mayor of Paris.

He also investigation in a number of other cases linked mainly to his 18-year stint as mayor of Paris from 1977-95. Chirac has consistently denied any wrong-doing.

PARIS MAYOR'S OFFICE

The dossier concerns about 40 bogus jobs allegedly given to members of the RPR or their relations in the mayor's private office when Chirac (1977-95) and his successor Jean Tiberi (1995-2001) ran the French capital.

The former heads of Chirac's private office as Paris mayor are among those who have been placed under formal investigation for "embezzlement of public funds".

Wednesday's move concerns this particular case.

FAKE JOBS AT PARIS CITY HALL

The only dossier to explicitly target Chirac by name. The graft case was launched in December 2002 and focuses on the fraudulent payment of members of Chirac's conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) party by the City of Paris.

Chirac's right-hand man during much of that time was Alain Juppe, a former prime minister whose career was derailed by the scandal. Juppe was given a 14-month suspended jail term in December 2004 and barred from public office for one year. New President Nicolas Sarkozy named Juppe as environment minister this year but he stood down almost immediately after losing a parliamentary election in his western constituency.

Investigators want to quiz Chirac over a letter Juppe sent him on May 25, 1990, regarding the promotion of individuals on city pay roll suspected of really working for Chirac's RPR.

Chirac was questioned about this case in July for four hours but was not placed under official examination.

OTHER PARIS-RELATED CASES

Investigators are also probing a number of related matters linked to Chirac's time as mayor of the capital.

CREDIT MUNICIPAL - Guy Legris, former head of the Paris RPR, is under formal investigation over embezzlement allegations.

SEMPAP - an investigation was launched in 1997 into misuse of public funds at the city's printers. A number of individuals have been placed under formal investigation.

GARDENERS - misuse of public funds probe launched in 2003 into suspected use of city gardeners for work in the private gardens of elected officials between 1983-2001.