(Paris) An actress “with undeniable talent”, but also “a taxpayer”: Isabelle Adjani was sentenced Thursday in Paris for tax evasion and money laundering to two years’ suspended imprisonment and 250,000 euros ($369,000) in fine, a judgment which she will appeal.
Absent from the deliberations, the 68-year-old actress, revealed to the general public in 1974 in The Slap of Claude Pinoteau when she was not yet 20 years old, was found guilty of all the charges against her between 2013 and 2017 Facts which, for the court, “demonstrate (its) desire for concealment from the tax administration” and “seriously undermine the equality of citizens before taxes”.
The five-César artist, who proclaimed his innocence, was found guilty of fraudulently domiciled in Portugal in 2016 and 2017, thereby evading 236,000 euros ($348,000) in income tax.
She was further fined for a sum of 2 million euros ($2.9 million) transferred in 2013 by Mamadou Diagna NDiaye, an influential businessman and friend of the actress, president of the National Olympic and Sports Committee Senegalese and also a member of the International Olympic Committee.
For the court, this sum, declared as a loan, was a “disguised donation”, which allowed the defendant, then in financial difficulty, to evade 1.2 million euros ($1.8 million) in transfer taxes.
Finally, Isabelle Adjani was found guilty of money laundering for transferring via an “undeclared” account in the United States 119,000 euros ($175,000) to Portugal – with the court finding that “the material and legal conditions of this operation could have no other justification than to conceal the origin and destination of these funds.”
Her lawyers, Messrs Stéphane Babonneau, Olivier Pardo and Laurence Dauxin-Nedelec, declared having read “with dismay” of the decision, “especially since Isabelle Adjani was unable to explain herself in court (and ) that the main witness to the facts had said for a long time that he could not be there”.
The trial on October 19 was held without the actress, known in particular for her roles in The Murderous Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), La Reine Margot (1994) or recently Masquerade (2022), who was in the United States, and without Mr. Diagna NDiaye, cited as a witness. His defense requested the postponement of the hearing, citing in particular an “acute pathology”, but the court rejected this request, saying it doubted his “real intention” to come to the stand.
“If Isabelle Adjani, who has always affirmed her innocence, does not ask – given her notoriety – to be judged better than other litigants, there is no reason for her to be judged less well, without less of rights,” added Me Pardo. “It is therefore with confidence and determination that we will invite him to immediately lodge an appeal.”
The court went beyond the requisitions of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which had requested during the trial an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 250,000 euros, as well as a two-year ban on civil rights – a penalty supplementary which was nevertheless not pronounced by the court.
The defense had claimed that she had made an “error” in her tax return by domiciled in Portugal, having been “badly advised” at the time.
Concerning the sum transferred by Mr. Diagna NDiaye, the lawyers had argued the good faith of the defendant, who had signed a “loan agreement under the supervision of a tax lawyer”. Finally, they maintained that the 119,000 euros transferred were intended to “make a donation to the family of her housekeeper, so that she could acquire property in Portugal”.
The artist regularized her situation by paying 723,000 euros ($1.06 million) to the tax authorities for income tax, but she still owes 2.5 million euros ($3.7 million) with penalties for the other part.
The investigation was opened in 2016 after the name of Isabelle Adjani appeared in the Panama Papers, as the owner of a company in the British Virgin Islands. The investigations did not lead to any prosecution on this aspect, but they revealed other suspicions.
Isabelle Adjani released an album this fall, forty years after her success Pull marine with Serge Gainsbourg, and she is also starring in the film Voleuses by Mélanie Laurent on Netflix.
