2023-12-14 14:35:01

The sanction fell. The actress with five Caesars Isabelle Adjani was sentenced Thursday in Paris in her absence to two years’ suspended imprisonment and a fine of 250,000 euros for tax fraud and whitening. The artist was found guilty of having fraudulently domiciled in Portugal in 2016 and 2017, of passing off a donation of two million euros as a loan and of having transferred 120,000 euros via an undeclared American account .

The court underlined the “seriousness of the facts”, which led to the evasion of 236,000 euros in income tax and 1.2 million euros in transfer taxes. “These facts demonstrate the desire for concealment vis-à-vis the tax administration of Isabelle Adjani” and “seriously undermine the equality of citizens before tax, therefore to the Republican pact,” declared the president. “An actress of undeniable talent, she is no less a taxpayer,” she also said.

Adjani absent from her trial

His lawyers said they heard the decision “with dismay.” “If Isabelle Adjani, who has always affirmed her innocence, does not ask, given her notoriety, to be judged better than other litigants, there is no reason for her to be judged less favorably,” declared one of his lawyers, Me Olivier Pardo.

The trial on October 19 took place without the actress and singer, known in particular for her roles in The murderous summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) or more recently Masquerade (2022). While she was at UNITED STATEShis defense requested the postponement of the hearing, citing in particular an “acute pathology”, but the court rejected this request, claiming to doubt his “real intention” to come to the stand.

The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had requested eighteen months of suspended prison time and a fine of 250,000 euros, as well as two years of ineligibility. “Before being a public figure, she is a citizen subject to duties,” said the financial prosecutors, for whom Isabelle Adjani “sought, in a fairly systematic manner, to reduce her imposition between 2013 and 2017.

Her lawyers Stéphane Babonneau and Olivier Pardo denounced the “trials of intent” and the “beliefs” of the prosecution, pleading the good faith of the 68-year-old star actress and asking for her release, without success.

Towards a call

Justice was interested in the 2 million euros transferred in 2013 by Mamadou Diagna NDiaye, an influential businessman, president of the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee and also a member of the International Olympic Committee. According to the prosecution, it was a “disguised donation” in ready, which allowed the actress to avoid 1.2 million euros in transfer taxes. For the defense, on the other hand, the sum corresponds to a “declared loan” from a “friend”, in a “context of very significant financial distress”.

Isabelle Adjani was also accused of having fictitiously domiciled in Portugal in 2016 and 2017, thereby evading 236,000 euros of income tax. Living between the two countries at the time, she made a “mistake” by being “badly advised”, her lawyers argued. The actress was finally suspected of whitening, for having received 119,000 euros from an offshore company into an “undeclared” American bank account, a sum then transferred to Portugal. Money used “to make a donation to the family of his housekeeper, so that they can acquire property in Portugal”, his advice argued.

When the actress’ conviction was announced, her lawyers announced their intention not to stop there. “It is with confidence and determination that we will invite him to immediately file an appeal.”

20 Minutes with AFP

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