French actor Isabelle Adjani gets massive tax fine

PARIS (AFP): French actor Isabelle Adjani received a two-year suspended sentence and a 250,000-euro ($264,000) fine for tax fraud from a Paris court on Thursday.

The star, a five-time winner at the Cesars — France’s version of the Oscars — falsely claimed to be resident in Portugal in 2016 and 2017, judges found.

She also falsely declared a two-million-euro gift as a loan and moved 120,000 euros through an undeclared American account.

They highlighted the “seriousness of the crimes”, which allowed Adjani to dodge 236,000 euros in income tax and 1.2 million in property sales tax.

“These facts show Isabelle Adjani’s will to conceal things from the tax authorities (and) seriously harm citizens’ equality under the tax system,” the lead judge said.

“While (Adjani) may be an undeniably talented actress, she nevertheless remains subject to taxes,” she added.

Adjani — famous for roles in films including 1983’s “One Deadly Summer”, “Camille Claudel” in 1988 and “La Reine Margot” (“Queen Margot”) in 1994 — did not appear in person for the initial hearing on October 19.

The court had rejected her request for a delay, citing an unspecified “acute illness”.

Judges said at the time that they doubted she really planned to testify.

Adjani’s lawyers expressed “dismay” at Thursday’s decision.

“While Isabelle Adjani, who has always maintained her innocence, does not ask for more favourable treatment than others before the law because of her fame, there is no reason for her to be judged less favourably,” said one of her lawyers, Olivier Pardo.

“We will therefore invite her to file an appeal immediately.”