PARIS, May 13 — A husband-and-wife team who have long dominated politics in a wealthy suburb of Paris went on trial tdday on suspicions of hiding two luxury villas and other assets worth €13 million (RM61 million) from the tax authorities.
Patrick and Isabelle Balkany have been under investigation since 2013 when a former political ally told judges he had deposited millions of euros in a Swiss bank account controlled by Patrick Balkany.
It was the latest in a string of inquiries into the couple’s finances over the years since Patrick Balkany first became mayor of Levallois-Perret, west of Paris, in the early 1980s.
The Balkanys are veteran power players in rightwing politics, close in particular to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose birthday parties at chic Paris restaurants they have attended.
Patrick Balkany has repeatedly been re-elected Levallois’s mayor after his first victory in 1983, with Isabelle as his deputy.
Both have been convicted previously of conflicts of interest, and both were handed suspended prison sentences in 1996 for the personal use of municipal employees, including one who was employed as their private chauffeur.
They are now accused of money laundering and failing to disclose their total worth to the taxman from 2007 to 2014.
Caribbean villa
Investigators accuse them in particular of hiding their ownership of the Pamplemousse villa on the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin, acquired by a company based in Liechtenstein via a Swiss trust in 1997.
Isabelle eventually admitted ownership, saying she had bought it with the proceeds of an inheritance.
The couple is also suspected of being the true owners of a vacation home in Marrakesh, Morocco, which was registered to Jean-Pierry Aubry, an associate of Patrick Balkany who is also on trial, as well as lawyer Arnaud Claude.
The Balkanys’ son, Alexandre, has also been charged on suspicions he signed fake rental contracts to hide his parents’ ownership of the Moroccan property.
Investigators allege that a Saudi businessman, Mohamed Al Jaber, paid the 2.75-million-euro price tag for the villa while he was in talks over a huge real estate project he was leading in Levallois.
The developer has been charged with bribing Patrick Balkany.
The properties have been seized by the state, along with a luxurious manor in Normandy.
A throng of journalists surrounded Balkany, 70, as he arrived at the Paris courthouse for the start of the six-week trial.
It was not clear if Isabelle Balkany, 71, would attend after she was hospitalised this month after overdosing on prescription medicine in a suspected suicide attempt.
In a Facebook post shortly before being hospitalised, she wrote of being “tired” and claimed to be a victim of a “biased inquiry”.
If convicted the couple could face up to 10 years in prison and be barred from holding public office. — AFP
