French actress Isabelle Adjani was tried on October 19, 2023 for tax fraud, charges that she formally contests. The prosecution requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
Isabelle Adjani was not present at her trial on suspicion of “aggravated tax fraud” and “money laundering tax fraud“, Thursday October 19, 2023, for medical reasons. The national financial prosecutor’s office, responsible for judging the case, requested 18 months in prison with suspended probation for 2 years against the actress. It also requested ineligibility for two years of the actress, a fine of 250,000 euros and publication of the judgment in the Official Journal. Her lawyers requested her release.
Isabelle Adjani is on trial this Thursday, October 19, 2023 for tax fraud and money laundering. The five-time Caesar actress is suspected of having concealed a loan donation and of having claimed to be domiciled in Portugal.
The 68-year-old actress formally denies the facts, and her lawyers declared to AFP that they were going to “plead for the release of Ms. Adjani of all the facts with which she is accused”. And added: Our client has not committed any offense.”
A loan or a donation?
In 2016, an investigation following the Panama Papers gave rise to other suspicions weighing on the actress: dThese millions of euros were allegedly transferred to the actress by an influential Senegalese businessman, Mamadou Diagna NDiaye, in 2013.
Isabelle Adjani is then suspected of having passed off what would be a donation as a loan, evading the payment of 1.2 million euros in transfer taxes. The question of whether this money would be a loan or a donation is therefore at the heart of this matter.
To AFP, the actress’s lawyers assured that it was indeed “a loan from a close friend”. “This loan was the subject of a contract duly registered with the French tax administration upon its signature in 2013, as required by law. The loan is now at an advanced stage of repayment.
His tax residence in question
The question of his tax residence is also the subject of a procedure. Isabelle Adjani is accused of having fictitiously domiciled in Portugal.
As a result, she is accused of having avoided paying 236,000 euros in income taxes in 2016 and 2017. Her lawyers assure that the actress “today has no tax debt, whether in France or in Portugal and paid everything she owed.
Judgment for money laundering
Isabelle Adjani is also on trial this Thursday for money laundering between the United States and Portugal, for a case dating back to 2014. Her lawyers once again deny these accusations.
The actress of Queen Margot is thus suspected of having used an American bank account “not declared to the tax administration” 119 euros “coming from an offshore company with unknown beneficial owner and intended for an investment in Portugal”, indicated last July a judicial source to Agence France Presse.
Indictment for fraud in another case
If Isabelle Adjani is today on trial for tax fraud and money laundering, she is also the subject of another legal procedure. In October 2020, the 68-year-old actress was indicted for fraud. A former consultant, to whom she owed 157,000 euros, accuses her of having sent him false proof of reimbursement. Legal proceedings are still ongoing in this case.