Former coach of Stade Malherbe de Caen, Franck Dumas was sentenced on appeal on January 25 to two years in prison, one of which was suspended for tax evasion.
In this case, which has already been tried several times - in corrections, by the administrative court, the Council of State -, Franck Dumas, whose sentence cannot be adjusted because he lives abroad and who remains liable for 139,579 euros excluding penalties, is therefore sentenced to one year in prison.
"Addicted to gambling and unable to pay taxes"
"The deliberate desire to evade his tax obligations, the absence of settlement of this debt for almost ten years, his presence abroad prohibiting any measure of forced execution" make "inevitable a prison sentence", can we read in the decision of the court of appeal, consulted by AFP.
In 2015, the Treasury claimed in respect of income taxes for 2011 and 2012 the total sum of 535,472 euros from the former coach, "addicted to games and unable to pay his taxes" according to his own statements before the criminal court. one year later.
“We will go to cassation”
Some 300,000 euros were recovered, but “never voluntarily”.
Franck Dumas, absent from the hearings since the first instance, disputes the taxable nature of a transactional indemnity of 430,000 euros paid by SM Caen in 2012, the year in which the club sacked him after his relegation to Ligue 2. in cassation”, declared his lawyer Philippe Veber for whom “the intention to defraud the tax authorities is not characterized, there is no account abroad, money hidden in a safe”.
“My client thought that the settlement indemnity was not taxable in the context of unfair dismissal,” said Me Veber.
Trained in Caen, a club in which he discovered Ligue 1 (D1 at the time) in 1988 and of which he was captain for a long time, Franck Dumas joined Monaco in 1992 at the request of the then Monaco coach, Arsène Wenger. .
In 1997, he was crowned French champion with Fabien Barthez or Thierry Henry.
He resides in the DRC
After a stint in Marseille and a return to Caen in 2001, he became a coach in 2005. He has pursued his career since 2012 mainly abroad, in particular because of his troubles with the tax authorities.
Still according to his advice, Franck Dumas has been looking for a contract since the end of his collaboration in October 2022 with the club “Tout Puissant Mazembe”, based in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) where he resides.
