Two brothers, managers of an Alsatian company of automotive components, were sentenced Tuesday, January 4 in Paris to eight and six months suspended imprisonment for having hidden from the tax authorities via a Hong Kong company, facts revealed in 2016 in the "
Panama Papers
".
Read alsoPanama fears the publication of the "Pandora Papers", the new investigation of the ICIJ
During a short appearance on prior acknowledgment of guilt (CRPC) before the 32nd chamber of the judicial court, the two defendants admitted the charges: having embezzled, from 2002 and over ten years, 200,000 euros in revenue via the company Trade Group Limited, attached to personal accounts not declared to the French tax authorities and which then enabled them to pay for leisure activities with bank cards.
The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) had opened an investigation, entrusted to the national brigade for the repression of fiscal delinquency (BNRDF), after an article published in June 2016 by
Rue89 Strasbourg
devoted to revelations by the international consortium of investigative journalists ( ICIJ) on the “
Panama Papers
”. The judge approved the sentence negotiated with the PNF and also sentenced them for aggravated abuse of social assets and tax evasion to a fine of 25,000 euros each.
Both “
fully cooperated
” during the investigations, said prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin, also reporting that the tax administration had imposed an adjustment with penalties of 89%.
"
The accounts are closed or in the process of being closed,
" he added.
In early April 2016, the ICIJ had published an investigation based on some 11.5 million documents from a Panamanian law firm.
They detailed the hidden assets of thousands of Mossack Fonseca clients, including prominent figures.
