It is the last-ditch resort.
The ultimate hope of obtaining reduced sentences and keeping their home, the Cossy mill, in Giverny (Eure).
This Wednesday, before the Court of Cassation, the Balkany couple listened to their lawyers plead the flaws in the judgment of the Court of Appeal which sentenced them, a year ago, to five and four years' imprisonment for money laundering. of tax evasion.
Patrick and Isabelle Balkany did not take the same approach, at the end of their conviction for tax fraud pronounced in March 2020. This is why they each wear an electronic ankle bracelet, to serve the three years inflicted.
Navy suit, waxed moccasins, the former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret wears the bracelet with some discretion, high enough on the ankle and under a red sock.
That of his wife is however clearly visible.
A fan of leggings, she has not changed her look for this bracelet, clearly visible above the garment.
" My heart is broken "
Their presence at this hearing was not essential, but both insisted on attending.
A way to show that they are not giving up and an opportunity to say two words to the cameras.
“My heart is broken,” said Isabelle Balkany.
Our whole life is in this house, it revolts me for our children.
“Because indeed, the couple's children, Alexandre and Vanessa, also risk losing the family home, confiscated by the courts.
This is one of the reasons for this appeal in cassation.
"This confiscation is impossible", pleaded Me Bertrand Périer.
The Balkany couple, who bought the Cossy mill in 1986, donated it to their children in 1997. Donation recognized by the Court of Appeal as not being “fraudulent”.
Read also Why Patrick Balkany was able to return to the Giverny mill, yet seized
However, the property would be confiscated.
How? 'Or' What ?
Since the donation, the children are the bare owners of the house and their parents have the usufruct.
Confiscating the sole usufruct is not easy.
"To my knowledge, it would be quite unprecedented," admitted the Advocate General himself.
However, he dismisses the appeal.
"Infamous" ineligibility
The solution would be to confiscate the entire mill (bare ownership and usufruct) so that the State sells it and compensates the children.
Inconceivable, according to Me Périer.
“Owners, children would lose their property rights, it's impossible.
”Not to mention that the mill has been for thirty-five years“ the anchor ”of the Balkany family, for whom this confiscation is“ extremely violent ”.
Me Périer also addressed the penalty of ineligibility with provisional execution, that is to say immediately applicable. This “infamous” sentence, which ejected the Balkany spouses from the Levallois-Perret town hall two days after it was pronounced. This "brutal ineligibility, which was a sudden stop" to the decades of rule of the Balkany over Levallois. In law, since it is this, and only this, that is at stake before the Court of Cassation, the immediacy of the provisional execution de facto derogates from the principle of legal remedies, developed Me Périer. “At the very least, if there is a derogation, the judge must explain it. "
Me François-Henri Briard, he endeavored to dissect the offense of laundering tax fraud to demonstrate that the Court of Appeal was content to "embroider on management acts".
In addition, the principle of non bis in idem (
one cannot be tried twice for the same thing)
did not allow the Court of Appeal to condemn Patrick Balkany for illegal taking of interests, according to Mr. Briard.
“We do criminal law!
Where is the proof?
"
Indeed, this illegal taking of interests is based on advantages that the former mayor of Levallois-Perret would have perceived in the affair of the Pharaonic towers of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Al Jaber. Except that in the first instance, the same supposed advantages were qualified as corruption. “However, Patrick Balkany was definitively released under passive corruption and the prosecution did not appeal, insisted Mr. Briard. The Court of Appeal does not say that it has evidence but that it has acquired a conviction ... But anyway, we are doing criminal law! Where is the proof? "
The Court of Cassation will rule on all these points of law on June 2. If she dismisses the appeal, the Balkany couple will undoubtedly wear the electronic bracelet for a long time to serve their sentences of five and four years in prison. If, on the contrary, it accepts the appeal, the way would open up for a new appeal process for tax fraud laundering.
