"Pandora papers": an LREM deputy files a defamation complaint against Le Monde

Europe 1 with AFP 8:24 p.m., October 07, 2021

LREM deputy and business manager Sylvain Maillard, quoted in the Pandora papers for having been linked to a structure in Seychelles, filed a defamation complaint Thursday against the newspaper

, we learned from his lawyer.

"Sylvain Maillard expects justice to restore its honor and the truth of the facts," said Mathias Chichportich in a statement.

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A Seychellois shell company for the online sale of "Beyblade" tops

In its Wednesday edition, the daily

revealed that the elected representative of Paris had been the 25% partner of a Seychellois shell company for the online sale of "Beyblade" tops imported from Asia, at the fashion in the playgrounds a few years ago.

Sylvain Maillard's partner, the only one to have been found at the time, was ordered to pay more than 60,000 euros to Hasbro, exclusive owner of the rights to "Beyblade", for counterfeiting and commercial damage in 2014.

In the press release, Me Chichportich assures us that his client "was totally unaware of the existence" of the company "until the journalists of the

" were

contacted

.

"This state of affairs is attested by one of Sylvain Maillard's associates who claims to have usurped his identity and to have concealed the existence of this company from him," he adds.

"Sylvain Maillard has shown the greatest transparency"

In the complaint with the constitution of civil party, he assures that, "contacted by one of the two journalists" of the daily, Sylvain Maillard "showed the greatest transparency to demonstrate his lack of involvement in an escape system tax, in any counterfeit trade ". "The entirety of his income and his assets has always been declared and taxed in France", underlines Me Chichportich, affirming in his complaint that the writings of the

targeting Sylvain Maillard "do not proceed from a serious investigation", and lack a "sufficient factual basis".

Bercy has launched checks on the presence or not of French tax residents among the people pinned in the Pandora papers, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.

The Pandora Papers revelations, which are based on some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies, uncovered more than 29,000 offshore companies.

The opacity surrounding these companies located in countries or territories with very favorable taxation can be used to conceal financial assets and to evade the tax administration.

According to

, 600 French people appear in the investigation of the Pandora papers.