Hairdresser Franck Provost indicted for “aggravated tax fraud laundering”

The French hairdresser Franck Provost has been indicted for “abuse of social assets” and “money laundering in an organized group of aggravated tax fraud”, revealed Thursday, December 23 the parquet floor of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) in a press release. Since this indictment, which took place on Tuesday during his presentation to an examining magistrate, the founder of the Provalliance group has been placed under judicial supervision “with a deposit set at several hundred thousand euros”.

According to the prosecution, “several reports” have been “transmitted by the tax authorities in 2017 concerning the use of fraudulent cash register software to divert cash receipts from a network of hairdressing salons”. The 75-year-old businessman is also indicted for “providing equipment and programs to commit offenses and breaches of automated data processing systems”.

The investigation relates to facts ranging from 2001 to 2021 and would concern, over this period, about 10% of cash receipts, according to a source close to the investigation.

In April, the opening of a judicial investigation had given rise to the indictment of the administrative and financial director of the group. It relates in particular to the offenses of “abuse of corporate assets and complicity”, “tax fraud and complicity”, “organized money laundering of aggravated tax fraud” and “illegal exercise of the profession of accountant”.

“Franck Provost is very calm”, explained his lawyer, Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, to franceinfo. According to him, the businessman “have nothing to be ashamed of” in this case and “has always paid all of his taxes since he started working at the age of 14”. Bouchez El Ghozi also charges the former financial director of the group, already indicted, “someone who took advantage of the system and gleefully plundered Provalliance and Franck Provost”.