The former mayor of Levallois-Perret, convicted of laundering tax evasion, benefited from a sentence adjustment granted by the Paris Court of Appeal.
The former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret, Patrick Balkany, was quietly released from prison early Friday morning, according to his entourage, after several months of detention in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne) for tax evasion.
From his residence in Giverny, in the Eure, Patrick Balkany spoke to journalists in the company of his wife Isabelle Balkany. He said to himself “relievedafter several months in solitary confinement without seeing any other detainees. “Prison is very hard, I was isolated, I did not meet an inmate for six months“said the former mayor to BFM TV . Patrick Balkany wanted to thank the prison staff and the caregivers who followed him during his detention: “They were remarkable“.
“This decision is irreproachable in law”
Thin, with long hair, the former mayor returned to his prison stay, which he described as a “hell“. “It’s hell to be there, because it’s screaming all over the place. It’s very tiring, we can’t sleep because until 2 am, it screams, it hits. I can tell you that for a man my age, it’s difficult.» «I’m happy to come and rest, find my wife, find my dogs and my house“, he added alongside Isabelle Balkany, visibly happy to find her husband. “Relieved is the wrong word and I can’t think of another; I can’t find the word. When a happiness is too intense, we cannot qualify it“, she added, also questioned in front of the gate of the mansion.
The release from prison of the former elected official had been discreet, before he decided to speak to the press who were waiting for him at his home in Giverny where he arrived shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal granted Patrick Balkany’s request for sentence adjustment. The judges took into accountthe efforts of the convict to finally initiate since February 2022 the settlement of the considerable sums due to the Public Treasury“, can we read in the decision.
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This “awareness», associated with «quantum of sentence he has now executed» and to «extremely low risk of recurrenceled the Sentence Enforcement Chamber to accede to his request. “This decision is irreproachable in law, because there is no justification for the continued detention of a 73-year-old man who has already served two-thirds of his sentence“, assured AFP his lawyers Robin Binsard and Romain Dieudonné. According to them, Patrick Balkany will return to his home in Giverny, in the Eure.
Sentenced for tax evasion
The former baron of Hauts-de-Seine and his wife Isabelle Balkany had been found guilty at first instance and then on appeal of tax evasion between 2009 and 2015. More specifically, they are accused of not having paid tax on the fortune between 2010 and 2014, of having paid a lower amount in 2015, as well as of having paid a largely undervalued income tax between 2009 and 2014. Patrick Balkany had been imprisoned in 2019 upon his conviction, then released in February 2020 for health reasons, then placed under an electronic bracelet in March 2021. He had been reincarcerated in February for not having respected the obligations related to wearing his electronic bracelet.
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His wife, whose wearing of the electronic bracelet had also been revoked, had been hospitalized after having, according to her husband, made a suicide attempt in February. She returned to her home on June 4 pending a possible summons to court. In addition to this conviction for tax evasion, Patrick Balkany and Isabelle Balkany were also definitively sentenced, in June 2021, for aggravated money laundering of tax evasion and for illegal taking of interest. Only the question of the quantum of the sentence remains pending, with a new trial scheduled for next October.
SEE ALSO – “It is not normal“: the inhabitants of Levallois-Perret react to the release of Patrick Balkany from prison