The king of tax optimization escapes further condemnation

It is not known whether he had touched wood before the deliberation.

But this time Nadav Bensoussan escaped conviction.

The former king of low-cost tax optimization, converted to a manager in a carpentry company in the Ile-de-France region, was acquitted on Monday by the 16th correctional chamber of the Luxembourg court.

This 41-year-old Parisian was accused of having laundered more than half of an impressive fraud committed by a banker in September 2011. This banker, former "head of preferential clients" at the Caixa Geral de Depositos, was thus condemned to four years in prison, two of which were suspended for embezzling 3.5 million euros from the account of one of his clients.

He will have to pay this sum as damages, in particular to the bank.

It is the heaviest sentence of this trial which was held for three weeks last October.

Seven defendants had appeared.

Millions traveling from society to society across several countries

On September 16, 2011, the Portuguese banker of this Luxembourg branch, where he no longer smells of sanctity despite a dazzling start to his career, decides to give himself a nice departure gift.

A transfer of 3.5 million euros to a Swiss account.

Officially, it was the wish of one of his clients that gave him all her confidence.

She was wrong.

She brought a civil action for moral damage and was reimbursed by the bank's insurance.

Once the scam has been carried out, the money must be laundered.

The banker then calls on financiers capable of making the millions travel from company to company across several countries to make all of this legal.

A nightmare for the investigators, who very quickly set out on Nadav Bensoussan's trail.

He proposed "tax freedom" for all

At the time, the Parisian golden boy did not yet make headlines.

But he has already made a name for himself since the early 2000s thanks to his company France offshore.

His credo?

Low-cost tax optimization.

Its customers?

Wealthy traders or small business leaders who do not want to pay the French tax authorities but who do not have the means to pay the entrance ticket to a Swiss bank.

In particular, it offers its clients the opportunity to set up companies in countries that are not too greedy.

Clearly, it offers, he says, “fiscal freedom”.

Except that for justice, it looks a lot more like fraud.

She assessed a laundering of at least 760 million euros between 2008 and 2012. Nadav Bensoussan will be sentenced to five years in prison, including three suspended in 2017.

A false sales contract for a yacht

But for the time being in 2011, Nadav Bensoussan is still well established.

According to investigators, it is to him that the Portuguese banker appeals by going through an intermediary to launder part of his scam.

The Parisian would be behind the “Liechtenstein industry”.

Among all the tricks used, he would have drawn up a false contract for the sale of a yacht to justify the transfer of 1.8 million euros between two accounts.

At least that was the conviction of the police officers and that of the prosecution for whom "money laundering was established".

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If Nadav Bensoussan gets away with it, it is because his lawyers pleaded “non bis in idem”.

"According to this rule, one cannot be punished twice for identical facts", decrypts Robin Binsard who defended with Fédéric Mioli the former king of the offshore.

And in his 2017 trial, the former boss of France Offshore was already being prosecuted for a period including 2011.

Still indicted in another case

Nadav Bensoussan has not yet finished with justice.

He is still being indicted in the context of another case relating to the laundering of tax fraud in an organized gang, criminal conspiracy, illegal exercise of the profession of banker, fraud, breach of trust.

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The financier had created a new company, Fidusuisse-Offshore, still somewhat in the same spirit.

After a few days in the prison of Health in Paris (14th century), Nadav Bensoussan was released under an electronic bracelet.

The investigation of this case is still ongoing.