Fresh Tax Evasion Against Wildenstein and Business Associates

Australia, March 17, 2016 (Newswire.com) - The tax man is coming again for Guy Wildenstein, and has filed fresh charges against his business associates and collaborators in connection to the case against the billionaire art dealer. Several people in connection with the case have been detained including art dealer of Australian heritage, Christopher Biasis, two former Wildenstein employees, Jean-Pierre Martel and François Gery, and two trust managers from Guernsey and the Bahamas. As reported by Le Monde, the French agency that investigates tax evasion has recommended that a judge charge Banque Royale Du Canada Trust, Northern Trust and Biasis Art Gallery with assisting Wildenstein in tax fraud and money laundering.

The new lawsuit originated from a new suit filed by the French tax authorities concerning the purchase of nineteen Pierre Bonnard artworks valued at an estimated €40 million euros. French tax authorities say Wildenstein owes them around €550 million ($830 million) for squirreling away scores of masterpieces by artists such as Bonnard, Courbet and Picasso in order to avoid a massive family tax bill. Wildenstein had been previously arrested and released on €20 million bail ($21.5 million), essentially a security deposit to be put toward the dealer's back taxes if he is found guilty.

The Wildenstein art dynasty was founded in 1875 by Nathan Wildenstein. Guy Wildenstein took over the family business in 2001, after the death of his father. He is now accused of dodging hundreds of millions of dollars in French inheritance tax through the use of offshore accounts.

The trial is an embarrassment to the French, as Mr Wildenstein is a former close political associate of Nicolas Sarkozy. The ex-president decorated "mon ami Guy" ("my friend Guy") with the Legion of Honour, France's highest award, in 2009. Wildenstein's lawyers, Dezeuze Eric and Hervé Temime, argue that the combination of both criminal and tax disputes raises legal issues that could be unconstitutional, especially, as the defendants already has a pending tax case. The lawyers of Mr. Martel and Mr. Gery did not respond to a request for comment. The lawyer of Mr. Biasis, Phillipe Tourrou, argued that his client was arrested for a transaction that occurred almost a decade ago, which had clearly passed the statue of limitations and requested that the court release his client on his own recognizance, as an upstanding Australian citizen.

All requests were denied by the  Court of Cassation and the hearing was scheduled for March 23.