Keyword: Arnaud Claude

Patrick Balkany: trial of high-living mayor who thought he could do as he pleased

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Patrick and Isabelle Balkany at the Élysée, March 11th 2008. © Reuters Patrick and Isabelle Balkany at the Élysée, March 11th 2008. © Reuters

On Monday May 13th 2019 the mayor of a wealthy Paris suburb, Patrick Balkany, and his wife Isabelle Balkany went on trial in the French capital for offences including tax fraud and money laundering. They are accused of having hidden some 13 million euros from the tax authorities, and prosecutors say they are the true owners of luxury properties in France, the Caribbean and Morocco. Alongside them on trial is lawyer Arnaud Claude who, like the Balkanys, is a personal friend of former president Nicolas Sarkozy as well as having been his partner in a law firm. Mediapart's legal affairs correspondent Michel Deléan sets the scene on a high-profile trial.

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Net closes in on Sarkozy law firm partner in tax fraud and money laundering probe

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Patrick Balkany (L) and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. © Reuters Patrick Balkany (L) and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. © Reuters

A French judicial investigation has described the “active role” played by Arnaud Claude, the partner of Nicolas Sarkozy in a Paris legal firm, Claude & Sarkozy, in helping an MP and longstanding political ally of the former French president, Patrick Balkany, to conceal from the French tax authorities his ownership of a luxurious Moroccan villa estimated to be worth more than 5 million euros. As the investigation draws to a close, the magistrates in charge have ordered the confiscation of a Normandy property belonging to the lawyer, Mediapart has learned. Fabrice Arfi and Mathilde Mathieu report.