François Hollande under pressure to bring in the big guns - including Ségolène Royal Thomas Wieder, an Elysée expert, said: "Ségolène Royal's presence is unbearable to Valérie Trierweiler. Also, Hollande is someone who hates conflict and Royal's presence on a daily basis would be a factor for conflict. It could also lead to claims of nepotism, which is the last thing he needs in the current climate. Another possibility is Martine Aubry, the former Socialist party leader who is said to have felt "snubbed" when she was not picked as prime minister after Mr Hollande was first elected. "She's already let it be known it's either prime minister or nothing," one close ally said. Speculation over a reshuffle came as Mr Hollande was dealt another embarrassing blow in the offshore tax scandal. After accessing leaked records, Le Monde reported that Jean-Jacques Augier, a 59-year-old businessman and the treasurer for Mr Hollande's presidential campaign last year, had shares in two companies registered in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven. Confirming the existence of the firms, the former inspector of finances insisted there was "nothing illegal" about setting them up in partnerships with foreign entrepreneurs. The president, he added, had "nothing whatsoever" to do with his investments, which he insisted brought him "no tax advantage." Mr Hollande's political woes began earlier this week when Jérome Cahuzac, his former budget minister, confessed to owning an undeclared offshore bank account containing 600,000 euros (£509,000) for 20 years, despite previously denying the existence of such funds. With opposition politicians demanding to know when the Elysée found about Mr Cahuzac's secret account, Manuel Valls, the interior minister, denied reports that intelligence services had handed him a note confirming its presence as early as December. With the Socialists in disarray, blanket media coverage of the tax fraud scandal was - fortuitously for the government - interrupted yesterday by the news that police had raided the home of an ex-adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Hollande's predecessor. Investigators are probing whether the former French president misused public funds to pay for opinion polls while in office. Last month, Mr Sarkozy was charged with taking financial advantage by receiving envelopes of cash from France's richest woman to illegally fund his 2007 presidential campaign - a charge he has called "unfair."