PARIS: A French tribunal of judges cleared Guy Wildenstein of charges that he laundered money by shielding a collection of artworks in a series of foreign trusts to avoid inheritance taxes, according to Doreen Carvajal in the New York Times. The case has been ongoing since last summer.
The lead judge who had presided over the trial last fall, Olivier Géron, announced the court’s decision at the Palais de Justice. For an hour he read a ruling that he acknowledged could seem to “defy common sense” as Wildenstein and his family had demonstrated a “clear intention” to conceal their wealth across generations. Still, their behavior, according to the decision, fell into a gray area since France did not enact legislation that requires the declaration of foreign trusts until 2011.
Authorities had sought to fine Wildenstein about $267 million, but the case also involved his nephew and estranged sister-in-law, along with Swiss and French legal advisers and foreign trust companies. All were cleared in the verdict. Prosecutor Monica d’Onofrio had sought prison time for Wildenstein, calling the family’s financial operations “the longest and the most sophisticated tax fraud” in contemporary France. Wildenstein’s legal team had argued at trial that he was unaware of the complex terms of the trusts managed by legal advisers.
He was initially accused of underestimating inheritance taxes after his father, Daniel, died in 2001 in France. Prosecutors contended that Wildenstein and his brother, Alec, intentionally hid art and assets via complex trusts and moved millions of dollars worth of artworks to tax havens in Switzerland days after their father died. This case itself grew out of legal battles waged by women in the family who complained of having been excluded from the business and cheated out of inheritances. Sylvia Wildenstein, Daniel’s widow, sued her stepsons over his estate, claiming that assets had been hidden from her in the trusts.
Other legal hurdles in civil court remain, despite the verdict, including claims by the French state for about $534 million in back taxes in addition to other complaints regarding works seized by the police from the vaults of the Wildenstein Institute in Paris due to unclear ownership. Those works are still in police possession.
