On October 19, local time, the famous French actress Isabelle Adjani (Isabelle Adjani) was convicted of tax fraud and money laundering by the Paris Court. She will be sentenced to one and a half years in prison with a suspended sentence; in addition, she must pay a €250,000 fine. fine. It is reported that Adjani, who is in New York, was not present at the scene. Her attorney asked the judge to retry the case on another day on the grounds that she was suffering from a sudden illness. However, the judge ultimately made the decision to try the case in absentia.
The 68-year-old Adjani has been in the film industry for more than 50 years. She is well-known in the world of film circles for her works such as "The Story of Adele Hugo", "Rodin's Lovers" and "Queen Margot". She has also won five French Film Citation Awards. She has a record of winning the Caesar Award for Best Actress, and has also won honors such as the French Legion of Honor for her outstanding performance. Last month, her latest work "Adieu Vinyle" was released in France.
Isabelle Adjani. Visual China Map
However, this time, the French prosecutors accused Adjani of lying about her residence in Portugal as her main residence when filing tax returns in 2016 and 2017. However, the tax authorities discovered that she actually lived in France most of the time. . Such false reporting helped Adjani escape a tax value of 236,000 euros. In addition, prosecutors also accused Adjani of receiving a gift of 2 million euros from Mamadou Ndiaye, the chairman of the Senegal Olympic Committee, in 2013, but Adjani made false claims when filing her tax returns. Calling it a loan, it avoided the corresponding taxes of 60% or 1.2 million euros.
Regarding the above two accusations, Adjani has already denied them all at the first time. In an exclusive interview with the French "Nouveau Observateur" magazine a week ago, she explained that she encountered a financial crisis ten years ago, so she accepted a loan of 2 million euros from Ndiaye, who was her long-time friend and... Godfather to her son Gabriel with British actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
In addition, Adjani stated that she does not worship money or be interested in fame and fortune like Hollywood actors. She usually leads a simple life of ordinary people and lives in the suburbs of Lisbon most of the time. "I don't live in a manor with a hot spring. I just rented an apartment with a parking space and turned it into my own studio. All my wealth is here."
This time Adjani came to New York to star in the stage play "Le Vertige Marilyn". However, according to her lawyer, she became seriously ill after arriving in New York and was not suitable to fly again. However, the judge did not accept this argument. It is reported that the French tax authorities initially targeted Adjani back in 2016, when the so-called "Panama Papers" incident broke out, and Adjani's name was among them, suspected of opening a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.
Later, it was the 2 million euros from Ndiaye that really attracted the attention of the tax collectors. In March 2018, prosecutors officially opened a case to investigate the matter. Adjani explained that it was an "interest-free loan" provided by "my old friend of 15 years and my son's godfather"; as for the repayment guarantee, "the only guarantee is myself."
It turned out that the film production company under Adjani's name suffered huge losses because of the cheating of senior executives. Adjani, who admitted that she was not a kind person, said that at that time, no bank was willing to risk lending her money, so she had to rely on Loan from Ndiaye. The latter also said during cross-examination by the prosecutor that it was indeed "a loan, but he never thought of asking Adjani to repay it."