Prosecuted by the courts, Patrick and Isabelle Balkany were sentenced in January 2023 to respectively four and a half and three and a half years in prison for laundering tax fraud. To this must be added a fine of €100,000 each as well as ten years of ineligibility. A huge blow for those who ruled with an iron fist over the town of Levallois-Perret for years.
After spending 5 months in the Fleury-Mérogis remand center in 2022, Patrick Balkany finally escaped prison term and was granted conditional release. He and his wife now live in their pretty property in Giverny awaiting their appeal. This Thursday, March 23, 2023, the couple confides in Paris Match and gives a rant: “When you are prevented from working, when you are forced to leave your city, the one you took care of for forty years, no doubt better than your own children, what do you have left? Our life was our mandates. You can’t redo a career at my age. We still have time to piss off and wait for the end“.
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A nice retirement in perspective
Following their conviction, Isabelle and Patrick Balkany had several of their properties confiscated, namely their mill in Giverny, their riad in Marrakech but also their sumptuous villa located on the heights of Saint-Martin in the West Indies. Since then, the famous spouses say they are ruined and in debt. As former mayor and former deputy mayor of Levallois-Perret, they now receive € 12,000 pension together. On this sum, they must however withdraw 2000€ monthly in order to repay their debt to the tax authorities.
The remaining €10,000 therefore allows them to lead a very comfortable lifestyle in an era where the majority of retired French people are struggling to earn €1,000. “They add interest each time… I don’t argue, we reimburse“said Patrick Balkany, visibly aware of being a privileged person.
ES