Former Minister Caroline Cayeux is suspected of misleading valuation of her assets and tax evasion. It would have reduced the value of two properties by a few million euros.
New blow for Caroline Cayeux. The day after her resignation, the now ex-delegate minister in charge of local authorities saw her file forwarded by the High authority for the transparency of public life at the prosecutor’s office. Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the HATVP “decided to inform the public prosecutor” on suspicion of “misleading valuation of assets” and “tax evasion” against Caroline Cayeux. The Oise Hebdo claims that if the prosecutor decided to refer the case to an investigating judge for tax evasion, the former minister would risk being sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility.
For its part, the HATVP, which reports in his press release inconsistencies in Caroline Cayeux’s declaration of assets, believes that “these shortcomings are likely to characterize the offense of misleading valuation of her assets (article 26 of the law of October 11, 2013)”. Article 26 in question explains, for its part, that providing a false valuation of one’s assets is “punished by a sentence of three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros”. this, can be added “the prohibition of civil rights, […] as well as the prohibition to exercise a public function”. It should be noted that according to the HATVP, these facts are also likely to constitute the offense of tax evasion. It refers to thearticle 1741 of the general tax codewhich says that “anyone” who has “willfully withheld part of the sums subject to tax […] is liable, regardless of the applicable tax penalties, to imprisonment for five years and a fine of 500,000 euros, the amount of which may be increased to double the proceeds of the offence”. For the time being, Caroline Cayeux remains, however, presumed innocent.
Two goods reduced by 4 million euros?
According to Mail Picard, Caroline Cayeux is the owner of an exceptional property: a 500 m² Haussmann-style building, located at 1 place de l’Alma, in Paris. This is a particularly flashy location in the capital, at the foot of the monument to Lady Di, on the banks of the Seine and with a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower. Caroline Cayeux did not buy the building with her own money. It is a family heirloom that she shares with her sister. In this sector, the price per square meter is displayed around €20,000. According to a first declaration of interests, the company that owns the building, which it owns 99%, was valued at more than 12.2 million euros. However, according to the HATVP, Caroline Cayeux reduced the real value of her main residence by €2,400,000. However, the organization does not specify whether by “main residence” it is the value of an apartment occupied by the septuagenarian or the entire building. And that’s not all.
Caroline Cayeux also owns a house in Dinard (Ille-et-Vilaine) explains the Courrier Picard. If the valuation of this property is not exactly known, the HATVP announces that the value of this residence has been reduced by €1,500,000. In the end, these two reductions correspond to “about half of the overall value of these two goods”. But the organization does not specify whether the proportion of the reduction was the same for each property.
An inherited fortune
If Caroline Cayeux’s declaration of assets will never be made public given her resignation, it is well known that the former senator is a multimillionaire. In addition to the two properties at the heart of the HATVP’s suspicions, she owns an apartment near Beauvais cathedral worth around €200,000, according to the Courrier Picard, as well as forests in Sologne. To which must be added draft horses.
This heritage, Caroline Cayeux did not constitute it alone. It is an accumulation of legacies, she who is a descendant of the founders of the car manufacturer Panhard, active during the first half of the 20th century, but also of Pierre Fournier, ex-CEO of Fournier laboratories, 4th French pharmaceutical laboratory. independent in the early 2000s.