After a third trial devoted solely to the length of the sentences, the Court of Appeal reduced the penalties imposed in May 2020 by six months, sentencing the former elected officials to four and a half and three and a half years respectively. from prison.

Above all, the court ordered a total confusion of these sentences with those of three years in prison imposed for tax evasion, in the first part of the case.

The weakest penalty is thus included in the most important.

"Neither he nor she will go or return to prison," rejoiced Isabelle Balkany's lawyer, Me Pierre-Olivier Sur.

"This is the end of the prison episode experienced by Patrick Balkany", greeted Me Robin Binsard, one of his advisers.

"He will be able to enjoy his old age with his wife."

It is a sentencing judge who will determine the terms under which the couple, 74 and 75, will serve these additional months in prison.

The Court of Appeal also confirmed the fine of 100,000 euros imposed on each and the 10 years of ineligibility pronounced against them.

It also orders, for a maximum period of 30 years, the confiscation of the usufruct of the Cossy mill, in Giverny (Eure), where the couple currently resides and of which their children are bare owners.

Leaving the Giverny mill?

Describing this measure as "totally ridiculous", Patrick Balkany told AFP that he was going to appeal again on this specific point.

"I don't see my children remaining in joint ownership with the state (...) all of this is grotesque."

Me Sur referred to him as a "Kafkaesque situation".

The former elected representatives of Levallois-Perret Patrick and Isabelle Balkany during a meeting of their party, Les Républicains, for the regional elections, on December 9, 2015 in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the Hauts-de-Seine © Miguel MEDINA / AFP/Archives

"The hypothesis" that the couple is forced to leave the premises "is not current", estimated Me Binsard, noting, beyond the appeal in cassation, the complex determination of the "modalities" of this confiscation.

Patrick and Isabelle Balkany were finally ordered to pay 400,000 euros in damages to the State, an amount substantially reduced compared to the million euros pronounced in May 2020.

Justice examined this case in two stages: that of tax evasion and that of money laundering, in which the court of appeal ruled on Monday.

This third trial is the result of a decision by the Court of Cassation.

In May 2020, the former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) and his ex-first deputy were sentenced on appeal to five and four years in prison, as well as a fine of 100,000 euros each and 10 years of ineligibility.

They had lodged an appeal in cassation and, in June 2021, the high court definitively confirmed their guilt, but it partially canceled the decision and ordered a new trial only on the length of the sentences, which was held on October 25.

The couple was found guilty of concealing between 2007 and 2014 some 13 million euros in tax assets, including two sumptuous villas in the Caribbean and Morocco.

Patrick Balkany was also sentenced for illegal taking of interests, the justice having considered that he had benefited from "personal advantages" in kind within the framework of a large real estate contract of the city of Levallois-Perret, of which he was mayor (1983 to 1995 then 2001 to 2020).

The former elected officials were serving the sentences imposed for tax evasion under an electronic bracelet until this measure was withdrawn from them in February 2022 due to numerous shortcomings.

The former baron of Hauts-de-Seine, who had already spent five months in prison in 2019-2020, was reincarcerated for six months, from February to August.

His wife, who was hospitalized for a long time, was not placed in detention.

She will soon be summoned before a sentence enforcement judge in Evreux, the prosecutor told AFP.

© 2023 AFP