Suspicions of tax fraud: actress Isabelle Adjani tried in Paris on Thursday

Isabelle Adjani, the five-César actress, is to be tried on Thursday in Paris for tax fraud and money laundering, suspected of having concealed a loan donation and of having fictitiously domiciled in Portugal, which she vigorously contests.

His defense will request the postponement of the trial, the artist having “not been able to take the plane” from the United States because of an “acute illness which was certified by a New York doctor”, indicated to AFP his advisors, Stéphane Babonneau and Olivier Pardo.

Known in particular for her roles in The Murderous Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), La Reine Margot (1994) or more recently Masquerade (2022), the 68-year-old actress and singer was the target of an investigation since 2016 following the Panama Papers.

In the revelations of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), she was cited as the owner of a company in the British Virgin Islands, Deckert Investments Limited, founded with the support of the Mossack Fonseca firm and registered in July 2014. The investigations did not show any offense linked to this offshore company, but revealed other suspicions which led to a summons from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office to court.

Firstly, two million euros transferred by Mamadou Diagna NDiaye, an influential Senegalese businessman, president of the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee.

The actress is suspected of having passed off what was a donation as a loan, which would have allowed her to evade 1.2 million euros in transfer taxes. “All the elements of the file and the investigation make it possible to demonstrate, without any ambiguity or possible doubt, that our client benefited in 2013 from a loan from a close friend,” assured Mes Babonneau and Pardo. “This loan was the subject of a contract duly registered with the French tax administration upon its signature in 2013, as required by law. The loan is now at an advanced stage of repayment,” they added.

Isabelle Adjani is also accused of having fictitiously domiciled in Portugal, thereby evading 236,000 euros of income tax. “If there was a difference of assessment with the tax administration on the location of her tax residence in 2016 and 2017”, the actress “today has no tax debt, whether in France or in the Portugal and paid everything it owed,” according to its defense.

Isabelle Adjani will also be tried for money laundering between the United States and Portugal in 2014. She is suspected of having “passed through an American bank account not declared to the tax administration the sum of 119,000 euros coming from an offshore company to the unknown beneficial owner and intended for an investment in Portugal,” a judicial source told AFP in July. For his advice, “no money laundering operation can be blamed” on their client who “will provide the court with all the necessary explanations on this point”.

Flagship actress of the 1980s-1990s, Isabelle Adjani has become rarer on the big screen, but creates an event in each of her performances in the cinema, in the theater or on television, as in the series Captain Marleau. The singer of Pull marine, written by Serge Gainsbourg 40 years ago, is preparing a second album for the end of the year. In November, she will appear in the film Voleuses by Mélanie Laurent.

In another procedure, Isabelle Adjani was indicted in October 2020 for fraud after a complaint from a former consultant accusing her of having sent him false proof of reimbursement of the 157,000 euros she owed him. The judicial investigation continues.