Swiss bank fined for helping French ex-minister evade taxes
Reyl had denied any wrongdoing during the investigation and claimed it had followed all regulations and laws
Keystone
A Paris court has fined the Swiss private bank Reyl €1.875 million (CHF2.03 million) for helping former French Budget Minister Jerôme Cahuzac hide undeclared funds. Cahuzac was sentenced to a three-year jail term.
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In 2013, the former minister and once rising star of the French Socialist Party was outed by a former Reyl employee turned whistleblower, who was later arrested in Switzerland under charges of breaking banking secrecy laws.
Cahuzac initially denied the allegations but resigned after later admitting to holding €600,000 in a secret Swiss account and being caught in a “spiral of lies”.
Cahuzac’s wife and co-defendant was also sentenced to two years in prison.
Geneva-based Reyl bank was found guilty of “being an instrument for the concealment of assets” by the French court and received the maximum fine possible for money laundering.
However, the bank escaped a ban on operating on French soil as demanded by the prosecution. Besides the bank, banker François Reyl was also fined €375,000 and given a two-year suspended sentence.
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