The EU’s General Court [official website] on Tuesday confirmed [press release] the European Parliament’s decision to recover nearly €300,000 (USD $347,550) in misused funds from former French presidential candidate and far-right politician Marine Le Pen [CNN profile].

Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2017. In 2016 the European Parliament investigated Le Pen, deciding that between 2010 and 2016 Le Pen was unduly paid €298,497.87 for a “parliamentary assistant” and that the payments must be returned.

The amount corresponds to the payments made by the Parliament for a staff member of Le Pen’s. However, “Le Pen did not provide any evidence of the existence of an activity of the local assistant linked actually, directly and exclusively to her mandate.”

Le Pen requested the General Court to annul the decision taken by the Parliament in respect of her. The court rejected Le Pen’s request and found that “Ms Le Pen provided nothing proving that direct assistance was provided to her on the premises of the Parliament by her parliamentary assistant, whose mere presence- claimed but not proved – on Parliament premises is not sufficient to that end.”

An appeal, limited to points of law only, may be brought before the Court of Justice against the decision of the General Court within two months of notification of the decision.