WASHINGTON (AFP) - The son of the French foreign minister is the subject of an arrest warrant for writing bad checks at a Las Vegas casino the night before his father assumed his position.

Thomas Fabius wrote bad checks totaling more than US$3.5 million (S$4.9 million) to cover gambling debts on the night of May 15, 2012, according to the arrest warrant, obtained on Thursday (Oct 29) by AFP.

On May 16, 2012, his father Laurent Fabius was officially appointed France's foreign minister.

As a result of the warrant, issued May 2013, the younger Fabius risks arrest if he sets foot in the United States, a spokesman for Nevada's Clark County told AFP.

Fabius, 33, who heads a financial consulting firm, is reported to have spent millions of dollars in casinos in the past and was investigated in 2013 for fraud and money laundering over a shady real estate deal.