The French actress with five Césars Isabelle Adjani was sentenced Thursday in Paris in her absence to two years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 250,000 euros (approximately CA$365,000) for tax fraud and money laundering.
This icon of French cinema, revealed to the general public in 1974 in The slap of Claude Pinoteau when she was not 20 years old, was found guilty of having fraudulently domiciled in Portugal in 2016 and 2017, of having passed off a donation of two million euros as a loan and of having transferred 120,000 euros via an undeclared American account.
The court underlined the “seriousness of the facts”, which led to the evasion of 236,000 euros in income tax and 1.2 million euros in transfer taxes. “These facts demonstrate the desire for concealment vis-à-vis Isabelle Adjani’s tax administration” and “seriously undermine the equality of citizens before taxes, and therefore the Republican pact,” declared the president.
“An actress of undeniable talent, she is no less a taxpayer,” she also said.
His lawyers said they heard the decision “with dismay.”
“If Isabelle Adjani, who has always affirmed her innocence, does not ask, given her notoriety, to be judged better than other litigants, there is no reason for her to be judged less favorably,” declared one of his lawyers, Me Olivier Pardo. “It is therefore with confidence and determination that we will invite him to immediately file an appeal. »
The trial on October 19 took place without the actress known in particular for her roles in The murderous summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) or recently Masquerade (2022), but also singer, whose hit Navy sweater written with Serge Gainsbourg celebrates its 40th anniversary.
While she was in the United States, her defense requested the postponement of the hearing, citing in particular an “acute pathology”, but the court rejected this request, saying it doubted her “real intention” to come to bar.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 250,000 euros, as well as a two-year suspension of civil rights.