Published on : 31/05/2022 – 13:14
Belfort (AFP) – The Economic Social Committee (CSE) and the General Electric inter-union in Belfort announced on Tuesday that they had filed a complaint with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for laundering tax evasion in particular, pointing to the American group’s tax evasion maneuvers.
This complaint once morest X for laundering tax evasion, breach of trust, forgery and use of forgery and aggravated concealment in an organized gang “has been filed with the PNF”, declared Eva Joly, lawyer for the CSE and the CFE-CGC and Sud unions, during a press conference in Belfort.
The plaintiffs denounce the tax practices of the American conglomerate.
Since the acquisition of the Belfort turbine plant from Alstom in 2015, the American multinational has caused more than 500 million euros to escape from the GE site in Belfort to Switzerland and the American state of Delaware where taxation is more advantageous, according to the unions and Me Eva Joly.
“We have shown that over the period 2016-2019, there was an artificial reduction (of the profits of the Belfort site) of 555 million euros”, underlined the lawyer, former MEP and former investigating judge. specializing in the fight once morest corruption.
“Since 2018, we have done a lot of analysis, expertise and we have noted a certain number of non-conformities”, added Philippe Petitcolin, CFE-CGC union representative and secretary of the CSE.
“Despite the reports, despite the meetings, despite the information that we have given to the tax authorities for four years, nothing changes, and therefore the tax evasion of General Electric continues. This is the reason why the CSE, the CFE- CGC and Sud have decided to seize the national financial prosecutor’s office.
The French tax administration denied to AFP on Monday that it had validated a tax optimization plan for the American industrial giant General Electric (GE), which would have allowed it to transfer several hundred million euros in profits abroad. .
© 2022 AFP
