This time, the prosecution does not demand immediate imprisonment against Patrick Balkany. After three half-days of hearing in the appeal trial for laundering of aggravated tax evasion of the spouses of Levallois-Perret, the public prosecutor's office demanded, this Tuesday evening, a sentence of five years of imprisonment, including one suspended , against Patrick Balkany. And four years, half of whom was suspended from his wife. No warrant for it either.
Last December, at the end of their tax fraud appeal trial, the prosecution had asked for four years against the still mayor (LR) of Levallois-Perret.
Also, "taking into account the connection between the two files and the confusion of sentences" (note: which will be possible once the convictions are final) , the prosecution does not consider it useful to lengthen the time of the imprisonment, said Advocate General Bruno Revel. In addition "in view of the new elements brought by medical expertise", which details the very "degraded" state of health of Patrick Balkany, imprisoned for five months.
Ineligibility still required
For both of the Balkany spouses, the public prosecutor's office also requests that ineligibility for ten years be declared, with provisional execution. That is to say, it will take effect as soon as it is pronounced if the court of appeal follows the prosecution. A fine of 250,000 euros is also required.
Before detailing the proposed penalties, Bruno Revel and his colleague Serge Roques returned at length to “the skein of shell companies and accounts abroad” developed to “hide an occult heritage” valued at some thirteen million euros and composed of millions on accounts abroad, of a villa acquired in Saint-Martin in the Antilles and of a riad in Marrakech, of which the spouses disputed to the end being the owners.
Isabelle Balkany having left the courtroom before the requisitions, she did not hear Bruno Revel reproach him for "reserving most of his energy to the media tribunal, while justice is going into the courtroom". Since the start of this appeal trial on February 4, Isabelle Balkany has tended to dry up the hearings. But she still appeared at the bar this Tuesday, for the examination of her personality.
Alexandre Balkany challenges the confiscation of the Giverny mill
Rather than answering a few questions, she chose to “summarize” herself “72 years of life combined with two” by reading a few written pages. Her golden childhood, her studies, her meeting with Patrick Balkany "whom she still loves madly", the conquest of Levallois-Perret, "all that [the couple] achieved there".
Then her "gesture", that of "the strong pseudo-woman who ended up cracking", last May, swallowing too many pills. "It is as if everything we had done was erased in a torrent of mud. I am not making ourselves victims, but what we have done does not deserve the stigma we have suffered. "
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Calm at the time of her deposition, Isabelle Balkany was more carried away when her son Alexandre, too, came to the helm, in particular because he contested the confiscation of the Giverny mill, family home of the Balkany in Eure, which the couple donated to their children. "We confiscate from our parents the good they have transmitted", summarizes Alexandre Balkany. The public prosecutor's office hears that the Giverny mill, like the rest of the heritage, is still confiscated. Defense lawyers will plead this Wednesday.
