“Paul Hottinguer denies having committed the alleged offenses.”Image: Shutterstock/keystone
Paul Hottinguer, who comes from one of the oldest banking families in Europe, will be tried in June in Paris for tax fraud and money laundering.
Paul Hottinguer, belonging to the banking family of Swiss origin, is suspected of having falsely domiciled in Switzerland to avoid paying taxes in France, we learned on Wednesday from a judicial source.
The man, aged 82 and also known by the surname Hottinger, will appear on June 2 and 4 before the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court for tax fraud and laundering of tax fraud from 2012 to 2020.
He is suspected of having concealed from the tax administration, via false domiciliation in Switzerland, income “to the tune of 8.7 million euros from 2012 to 2020”, the years 2016, 2017 and 2022 being currently still at the analysis. The duties evaded have so far been estimated at 3.1 million euros, the source described.
He says he paid his taxes in Switzerland
Regarding wealth tax, the hidden assets were estimated at 7.7 million euros, or 110,000 euros in evaded duties, she added. His son, Philippe Hottinguer, and his former assistant will be tried alongside him for complicity in these two offenses.
“Paul Hottinguer denies having committed the alleged offenses. He explained himself during the investigation: he was not a French tax resident during the years in question and paid his taxes in Switzerland,” his lawyers Martin Reynaud and Michel Gryner responded to AFP.
The investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) began after a complaint from the tax administration in 2019. Paul Hottinguer, owner of a large apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, is known for organizing hunts in his castle in the Seine -et-Marne. But, according to the prosecution, he has lived in Switzerland since the 1980s.
-He would have put in place financial arrangements
Invoices, telephony, diary, travel, registration on the electoral lists, membership in a club, organization of hunts, bank accounts, real estate, employment of employees…: the investigations revealed that Hottinguer “is domiciled in France” and that “he draws his income from his activity” in France, describes the same source.
At the same time, he is accused of having set up a financial arrangement with companies and foundations registered abroad, with offshore accounts, to capture the dividends received from his activities in France, in particular via a real estate company, to avoid fully taxable, specifies this source.
His son, “manager and administrator of several of these companies”, received these dividends and paid them to his father, according to the judicial source.
His former assistant is accused of having falsely domiciled Paul Hottinguer in Switzerland in the declarations and monitoring his financial arrangements.
The Hottinguers are one of the oldest banking families in Europe, historically based in Zurich. (jzs/ats)
