A slightly too conspicuous tax exemption system.
The mayor (DVD) of Roubaix, Guillaume Delbar was sentenced this Thursday by the Lille criminal court to six months suspended prison sentence, 3,000 euros in fines and two years of ineligibility for his participation in a fraudulent system tax exemption via political micro-parties.
For now, he can still keep his mandate as mayor, if he appeals the decision.
Guillaume Delbar was prosecuted alongside relatives, deputies to the town hall and members of his family.
Of the 14 defendants, the first deputy mayor of Roubaix, Max-André Pick (LR), was sentenced to the heaviest sentence, only to be entitled to prison, however suitable for home detention.
Tax credits of up to 39,000 euros
Max-André Pick, who is also vice-president of the Northern Department in charge of Finance, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment including 6 months suspended, a three-year ineligibility sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros.
At the heart of this issue, donations to micro-political parties between 2015 and 2020. A party, created for an election campaign, collected donations.
Part of these donations could then be transferred to the accounts of an association, under an agreement signed with the latter.
Then said association was responsible for reimbursing donors up to 85%, "sometimes even 100%" of donations, according to the president of the court.
In the meantime, donors had been able to tax two-thirds of the amounts initially paid to the political party.
In all, more than 230,000 euros have thus fueled the mechanism.
Between 2015 and 2020, the cumulative tax credits could amount to up to 39,000 euros for some defendants.
"Example of the hijacking of democracy"
"This file is an example of the misappropriation of democracy and the rules for financing political life," the prosecutor, Michael Bonnet, had criticized during the hearing in October.
It is not bearable that elected officials abuse their position to avoid paying taxes ”.
The elected Roubaisien and the former chief of staff of the mayor of La Madeleine, Pascal Legrand, had admitted having set up this system but assured not to have believed it illegal - at a pinch "border line" according to the expression of Max-André Pick.
“Money is not my engine,” Guillaume Delbar also said in court, pleading good faith in this case.
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Mayor
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Roubaix
Tax fraud
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