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By crisscrossing the planet aboard his private jet, he emitted more CO2 in a few months than an average Frenchman in seventy years. But Patrick Drahi, the CEO of Altice, seems to be more concerned about reducing his taxes than his carbon footprint… Extract from a document from “Complément d’Enquête” to be seen on March 9, 2023.
Addicted to their private jet, billionaires are just as much as footballers. His Global 7500 at 62 million dollars, Patrick Drahi uses it a lot. In the first months of 2022 alone, in 56 flights on four continents, the plane has covered 128,000 kilometers.
According to calculations by “Complément d’Enquête”, the CEO of Altice (owner of BFM TV, RMC, SFR, etc.) emitted 684 tonnes of CO2, i.e. more than seventy years of emissions from an average Frenchman. . This information was obtained following a data leak on the internet. The journalist Antoine Champagne, of the Reflets site, is the first to have revealed the content of some of these documents stolen by computer hackers (which earned him prosecution from Altice).
We discover the little quirks of the billionaire, who requires a temperature of 24 degrees in his jet, fresh carrot juice, such a specific brand of pillows, champagne or candy… But for the journalist, they above all represent a mine information about its tax practices and its “permanent search for tax optimization”.
Complex arrangements to “neutralize” the tax
What these documents reveal are the complex arrangements put in place to buy the planes used by Patrick Drahi. His Global 7500 was acquired by his company Manjet, registered in a tax haven, the Isle of Man. The plane was then sent to Switzerland and entrusted to a small airline company for so-called “professional” flights (which makes it possible to recover VAT at customs, for more than 4 million euros). Patrick Drahi would then rent his own jet to himself, and deduct these costs from the profits of his companies.
The objective of all these manipulations: “neutralize” the tax, as a manager writes in a note. Patrick Drahi’s teams refused to answer an interview. Perhaps they are focused on their latest operation: a new plane that they planned last year to register in Malta, another island with low taxation…
Excerpt from “Private and ultra-rich jets: it’s soaring for them!”, a document to see in “Additional investigation” on March 9, 2023.
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