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Jean-Marie Le Pen allegedly kept €2.2m in hidden Swiss bank account
Source: The Guardian
Jean-Marie Le Pen allegedly kept €2.2m in hidden Swiss bank account
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Monday 27 April 2015 19.42 BST
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right Front National, allegedly held a hidden Swiss bank account via a trust overseen by his butler, containing €2.2m including €1.7m in gold ingots and coins, the investigative website Mediapart has reported.
The website reported on Monday that prosecution authorities in Nanterre, west of Paris, were handed details of the trust and bank account by the French anti-money-laundering authority, Tracfin. If the presence of a hidden bank account is established, Le Pen could face action for failing to make a full disclosure of his estate to financial watchdogs and possibly for tax fraud.
Front National, currently headed by Le Pen’s daughter Marine Le Pen, has railed against what it deems the corruption of the French elite, styling itself as a down-to-earth alternative. It has made a series of election gains in recent years, winning mayors, increasing its local councillors and gaining MPs and senators.
Mediapart claimed that Gérald Gérin, a close assistant to Le Pen who has been described as his butler and who is currently a Front National regional councillor, had in 2008 become the legal beneficiary of a trust based in the British Virgin Islands. This structure had an account at HSBC bank in Switzerland until 2014, the website reported. The HSBC account was closed in 2014 and the funds transferred to the Bahamas to an account with the Swiss bank CBH. The website said Le Pen was the economic beneficiary of the undisclosed trust.
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Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Monday 27 April 2015 19.42 BST
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right Front National, allegedly held a hidden Swiss bank account via a trust overseen by his butler, containing €2.2m including €1.7m in gold ingots and coins, the investigative website Mediapart has reported.
The website reported on Monday that prosecution authorities in Nanterre, west of Paris, were handed details of the trust and bank account by the French anti-money-laundering authority, Tracfin. If the presence of a hidden bank account is established, Le Pen could face action for failing to make a full disclosure of his estate to financial watchdogs and possibly for tax fraud.
Front National, currently headed by Le Pen’s daughter Marine Le Pen, has railed against what it deems the corruption of the French elite, styling itself as a down-to-earth alternative. It has made a series of election gains in recent years, winning mayors, increasing its local councillors and gaining MPs and senators.
Mediapart claimed that Gérald Gérin, a close assistant to Le Pen who has been described as his butler and who is currently a Front National regional councillor, had in 2008 become the legal beneficiary of a trust based in the British Virgin Islands. This structure had an account at HSBC bank in Switzerland until 2014, the website reported. The HSBC account was closed in 2014 and the funds transferred to the Bahamas to an account with the Swiss bank CBH. The website said Le Pen was the economic beneficiary of the undisclosed trust.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/27/jean-marie-le-pen-allegedly-kept-hidden-swiss-bank-account