The couple Isabelle and Patrick Balkany will know on June 2 if the Court of Cassation accepts or rejects their appeal against their conviction in May 2020 for aggravated money laundering of tax fraud.
Read also: The Balkany's sentence increased on appeal
The attorney general of the court of cassation, whose role is to defend the law, advocated Wednesday the rejection of this appeal, the last resort in this case for the former city councilors of Hauts-de-Seine. The former mayor LR and the former first deputy of Levallois-Perret had lodged an appeal after being inflicted, on May 27, 2020, five and four years in prison, 100,000 euros in fines each as well as 10 years of ineligibility. The Paris Court of Appeal had found them guilty of having concealed some 13 million euros of assets from the tax authorities between 2007 and 2014, in particular two sumptuous villas in Saint-Martin (in the Caribbean) and in Marrakech (Morocco) , masked by a string of offshore companies.
Before the high court, which controls the application of the law and not the substance of the decisions, the Balkany, under judicial supervision and who attended the hearing with an electronic ankle bracelet, also challenged through their lawyers for the confiscation of the Cossy mill, in Giverny (Eure), where they still have the right to reside for the moment. "
My heart is broken
" by the confiscation of this house, explained Isabelle Balkany at the end of the hearing, explaining that this residence was "
the home port of the whole family
". This confiscation "
revels me for my children,
" she added. The mill is partly owned by the Balkany children.
The lawyer at the Court, Me Bertrand Périer denounced "
extraordinary violence
" against the Balkany couple. Patrick Balkany's lawyer, Me François-Henri Briard urged the Court to treat the Balkany "
as mere litigants
". According to the lawyer, the acts of laundering tax fraud alleged against his client are time-barred. Me Périer also denounced the penalty of ineligibility which strikes the spouses, considering that it was "
an interference of the judiciary in the democratic regime
". "
It is neither justified nor motivated,
" he insisted.
If the appeal were to be dismissed, it would sign the epilogue of this very media affair and the duo would be summoned before a judge of application of sentences for the execution of the sanctions. If the appeal is allowed a new trial may be ordered. Aged 72 and 73, they were removed from their mandates in March 2020, following their three-year conviction on appeal in the first part of this case, that of tax fraud.
