“Yes, I acknowledge my guilt and accept the proposed sentence. » At the bar of the Paris criminal court, Alain B. seems relieved to put a definitive end to an inglorious episode in his life. For years he was the beneficiary of offshore companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and bank accounts in Switzerland and the Bahamas. At his side, his mother, Lise, also admits to the facts of tax fraud and money laundering.
The structures, not declared to the French tax authorities, were managed by the company Helin International, a pharmacy accused of having organized the tax fraud of hundreds of clients, mainly French, from Switzerland, then the United Arab Emirates.
The criminal court validated on Tuesday March 12, as part of an appearance procedure upon prior admission of guilt, the sentence proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) to Alain B. and his mother: two years in prison, suspended and a fine of €1.75 million.
In October 2021, the youngest daughter of the B. family was sentenced to the same sentence in the very first conviction in connection with the “Dubai Papers”, a data leak from Helin International revealed in 2018 and 2019 by L ‘Obs and Radio France.
“A cumbersome secret”
The history of the B. family’s tax fraud dates back to the 1930s, when an Alsatian ancestor, banker and business manager, decided to place “significant funds” in Swiss banking establishments, as recalled by the PNF at the hearing Tuesday. A taboo situation within the family, described as a “burdensome secret” by the president of the court. During the 2000s, faced with the need for money and pressured by Swiss banks to take back their money due to the lifting of banking secrecy, the members of the family became attached to Henri de Croÿ, a Franco-Belgian financier appearing as the ringleader of an international tax fraud network revealed by the “Dubai Papers”. The investigation estimated the family’s assets managed by the Helin International group at 115 million euros, including 65 million for Alain and Lise B.
In 2014, they agreed to have their money transferred to a Swiss charitable foundation. A “fictitious donation”, recalls the president of the court, who specifies that the agent was then used to pay for trips to family members, or was given to them in France in the form of cash or preloaded bank cards to finance a part of their lifestyle.
Shortly after the first press revelations, in 2018, the two beneficiaries came forward to the PNF, immediately recognizing the laundering of tax fraud. At the hearing, prosecutors Caroline Genin and Julien Augereau explained that the sentences proposed against Alain B. and his mother were “significant” because of the “very significant amounts of funds hidden from the tax services”, and “duration of concealment.”
The magistrates, however, took into account the fact that “this hidden fortune was inherited” and the “complete cooperation” of the members of the B family “both on the tax and criminal levels”. In parallel with the legal investigation, Alain B. and his mother were the subject of a costly tax adjustment. For hiding €65.5 million from the tax authorities, they had to pay €38 million in arrears and penalties on income tax and wealth tax.
More than 300 people in the PNF’s sights
After these two new convictions, there are now ten clients of “Dubaï Papers” who have been tried to date by the criminal court for acts of tax fraud. Other appearance procedures on prior admission of guilt could follow. “At this stage, 79 people have been or are the subject of checks and controls by the tax administration, and most are or will be affected by adjustments and prosecutions by the PNF,” said the deputy prosecutor, Caroline Genin. In total, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office listed “322 people likely to have used the services of the Helin International network”, most of them French tax residents.
At the same time, “the investigation into the Helin company continues in France and abroad,” specifies the magistrate. Belgium and Switzerland have also opened legal proceedings against this network.
