Condemned on appeal respectively to five and four years in prison for laundering of tax fraud, Patrick and Isabelle Balkany formed Tuesday, June 2, an appeal in cassation, told Agence France-Presse with their lawyers, confirming information of the World. Already banished from politics, the former councillors of Levallois-Perret, a commune well-to-do of the Hauts-de-Seine, had seen the may 27, their sentences increased on appeal, although without incarceration immediate because of their state of health. The former mayor of Republicans, 71 years of age, had been convicted of " illegal catch of interests ", having received "personal benefits" in kind within the framework of a large contract real estate of the city.
Punishing "a system that is perfectly anchored in the torque" and it has removed over the years of the " substantial benefits ", the court of appeal had considered the Balkany guilty of having concealed some thirteen million euros of assets to the tax authorities between 2007 and 2014, including two sumptuous villas, Grapefruit to Saint-Martin and Dar Guycy in Marrakech, masked by a string of offshore companies. The couple was also sentenced to ten years of ineligibility, with provisional execution of this additional penalty, and each spouse a fine of 100 000 euros. The confiscation of their property has been confirmed, with a special provision for their residence of the moulin de Giverny (in the Eure), of which a share should be returned to their children, bare-owners.
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An appeal which will delay a final conviction
" In addition to several technical reasons that we will have time to develop later with my brother, near the Court of cassation, the appeal is primarily motivated by the heaviness of the decision, both on the criminal as civil, " said the Agency France-Press Me Roman Dieudonné, a lawyer of Patrick Balkany. This new remedy is suspensive, with the exception of the measure of ineligibility, which in fact changes nothing, the former elected officials who have been relieved of their mandate in the wake of their conviction on appeal on march 4 to a three-year sentence for tax fraud. This conviction for tax fraud, is, it, ultimately, the Balkany did not appeal in this pane.
This appeal will delay of several months, or even years, a final conviction of Balkany in the pane laundering : in case of rejection of their appeal, they will be summoned to appear before a sentencing judge, who will respond to their requests any penalty adjustment. If the appeal grew, the couple could be remanded to a new court of appeal for another trial.
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