• The LR deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes Bernard Brochand was sentenced on Tuesday in Paris to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros.

  • The former mayor of Cannes was found guilty of knowingly omitting to mention in his statement to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life accounts at the Swiss bank UBS credited with more than 1.2 million euros .

The LR deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes Bernard Brochand was sentenced on Tuesday in Paris to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros.

He was prosecuted for not having mentioned accounts in Switzerland in his declarations of assets and for laundering tax fraud.

A sentence of three years of ineligibility, fully suspended, was also pronounced by the criminal court against the former mayor of Cannes, dean of the National Assembly at 83 years old.

From the firm prison required by the prosecution

On February 16, the prosecution had requested a sentence of three years' imprisonment, including one year firm, asking that this part be arranged in the form of house arrest under an electronic bracelet.

The public prosecutor had also requested, given the significant “resources” of the former advertiser, the maximum penalty of 375,000 euros in fines for laundering tax fraud, as well as three years of ineligibility.

He had requested that this penalty of fine and that of ineligibility be accompanied by provisional execution, but the court did not follow him.

Bernard Brochand was found guilty of knowingly omitting to mention in his declaration to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) accounts at the Swiss bank UBS credited in total to more than 1.2 million euros, which he had held since 1973. He was also convicted of laundering tax evasion between 1996 and 2014, linked to these same Swiss accounts and the interest they generated.

A “dormant” and “completely forgotten” account

At the hearing, his defense had requested the "leniency" of the court, ensuring that the omission of the deputy was not intentional, this "dormant" account in Switzerland having been "completely forgotten" by his client.

The court underlined the "seriousness of the attack on the transparency of public life" by concealing the holding of these accounts.

He justified the suspension pronounced for the sentence of ineligibility by the fact that the deputy “has since regularized his situation”.

In this case, a judge had, as a rare occurrence, refused in 2017 to approve a suspended sentence of eight months in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros, proposed by the prosecution as part of an appearance procedure on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC).

Bernard Brochand lodged an appeal in cassation against this refusal of approval, but his appeal was declared inadmissible.

Justice

Tax fraud: One year in prison required against MP LR Bernard Brochand for "forgotten" accounts in Switzerland

Justice

Cannes: The Court of Cassation rejects its appeal, trial in sight for MP Bernard Brochand

  • Justice

  • Nice

  • walking sticks

  • tax evasion

  • The Republicans (LR)

  • Swiss

  • Paca

  • Deputy