French actress Isabel Adjani’s trial on tax evasion and money laundering charges will begin in Paris on October 19, a judicial source said on Tuesday.
Lawyers Julie Faryal-Sezon and Cedric Labrousse, Adjani’s defense attorneys, described his trial as “unfair and disproportionate,” saying the star “denies everything he has been told and has done nothing wrong.”
The 68-year-old multi-award-winning actress faces charges of defrauding the tax authorities through two schemes in 2013, 2016 and 2017.
A judicial source said Adjani had received a two-million-euro donation from “Mamadou Dianiya Ndiaye, a Senegalese businessman, president of the Senegalese Olympic and Games Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee,” but he hid it. Under the guise of a loan, 1.2 euros helped her evade “million euros” worth of payments (…), and took up a (fictitious) residence in Portugal, which allowed her to “evade 236 thousand euros in income taxes”.
Adjani’s lawyer criticized “the attempt of the French tax administration in all respects to reclassify this loan as a donation, even though it was repaid several years ago.” They also mentioned that Ndiaye is the “godfather of the actress’ son”.
The actress has been prosecuted for money laundering between the US and Portugal in 2014. He is “suspected to have sent 119,000 euros provided to the tax authorities by a foreign company through an unrecognized US bank account to an unknown. Beneficiary with the intention of investing in Portugal.” , according to the same source.
An investigation into accounts in tax havens was launched in 2016 following the revelations of the “Panama Papers” scandals related to tax evasion cases. Isabel Adjani is listed as a business owner in the British Virgin Islands.
While the investigations have not been able to identify the financial flows associated with this foreign company, they have revealed facts about tax evasion and money laundering, sources in the judiciary said.
Adjani is the only French actress to win the César Award for Best Actress five times, and her career began on the stage, where she was marked in French cinema by playing roles involving “soft women characterized by fragility and passion from Lestoire Tadel. François Truffaut’s Ash” in 1975, written by her son Victor. Inspired by the life of Hugo. , to Patrick Seroux’s “La Reine Margot” based on the 1994 novel by Alexandre Dumas.
On Friday, Adjani released a collaboration song titled “Les Courants d’Air” with French band “Louis Attack” Keith Roussel in preparation for a future album.
The new song is part of the actress’ second album, which will be released later, after her collaboration with late star Serge Gainsbourg 40 years ago, “Bull Marine.”
In another case, in October 2020, he was charged with fraud based on a claim by a former adviser who accused him of concealing 157,000 euros owed to him.
(AFP)
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