2023-04-18 20:49:12
The Swiss bank Reyl was sentenced Tuesday in Paris to a fine of 5.75 million euros, acknowledging that it participated with three other defendants, between 2009 and 2013, in a scheme to launder tax fraud in an incidental investigation at the Cahuzac case.
Its leader, François Reyl, also received a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 500,000 euros. The sentences were proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) as part of an appearance with prior acknowledgment of guilt (CRPC) – a sort of French-style guilty plea – and approved by a judge of the court.
The procedure dates back to 2013: while the investigations targeted Jérôme Cahuzac, a minister forced to resign for having had a secret account in Switzerland, suspicions are focused on other undeclared accounts of French customers hosted at the Reyl bank. A new judicial investigation was then opened. In particular, it gave rise, in January 2016, to a first CRPC where the Reyl bank pleaded guilty to laundering tax fraud concerning six accounts and was fined 2.8 million euros. In addition, in the Cahuzac case in December 2016, the bank was sentenced to a fine of 1.875 million euros and its manager to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros.
Read also: On appeal, the “Swiss” aspect of the Cahuzac case takes a back seat
A fine of 2 million for the client
On Tuesday, an eighth undeclared account was studied: that of Alexandre Allard, an entrepreneur who had made a fortune and former owner of the Parisian luxury hotel Le Royal Monceau. He is accused of not having declared to the tax authorities, in 2009, having benefited from a transfer of more than 4.6 million euros and a financial arrangement to fraudulently evade tax in France. . Alexandre Allard pleaded “an error” and was given a one-year suspended prison sentence, as well as a fine of 2 million euros. Finally, a fourth defendant admitted his responsibility: Philippe Houman, a former financial adviser, who was also sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros in the Cahuzac trial.
On Tuesday, he was accused of setting up companies and opening bank accounts for seven other clients. He received a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of 500,000 euros. “I also thought, wrongly, that fulfilling the legal rules at least in Switzerland and Singapore, I was not breaking the law,” said Philippe Houman.
The court underlined the “non-pecuniary damage suffered by the State” in the form of an “attack on the credibility and effectiveness of the action of the State” and ordered Philippe Houman to pay 50,000 euros in damages and interest as well as 50,000 euros “solidarily” to François Reyl and his bank.
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