“Swindlers” broke into the personal bank account of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said a Cabinet spokesman, and made off with a small sum of money.

The incident proves that bank accounts “[aren’t] infallible,” said spokesman Luc Chatel, and that even world leaders are vulnerable to simple bank thieves.

“An inquiry is underway, the President of the Republic has filed a complaint,” he told France’s Radio J, “We will see if there was fraud in a way in which the perpetrators can be sanctioned.”

Details on how Sarkozy’s account was broken into are unclear. An unnamed AFP source “close to the inquiry” called the theft a “classic case of data piracy, likely by one or several low-level swindlers,” and that it was unlikely the thieves were aware of just who the account belonged to.

Officials have “not excluded” the possibility of misconduct by Sarkozy’s bank, noting that they are considering penalties for the “misuse” of Sarkozy’s personal data.

“When one gives personal information to one's bank, it is not so the information is used for marketing or recruiting purposes, or that it should be divulged here or there,” said the source.

A number of sources report that the break-in may have been the result of an internet scam, and Sarkozy’s office confirmed that Parisian fraud officers are on the case.

It appears that Sarkozy did not unknowingly give away his bank account data. While officials confirmed that the thieves discovered Sarkozy’s account number, it is not known how they obtained his password – or if they even needed it.