A 30-month prison sentence was handed down Thursday by the criminal court of Colmar (F) against Josiane Seiler, 68, the main defendant in the trial of the squandered fortune of Cléophée Herrmann, sole heir to the empire Schlumpf.
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An arrest warrant was also issued against her, even though she was absent when the deliberations were announced. His sentence, which results from his guilt, according to the court, for acts of “abuse of weakness and laundering of abuse of weakness”, is not adjusted “with regard to the quantum above the thresholds for adjustment of sentence », Specified the court.
However, she was acquitted of “tax fraud laundering”. The sixty-year-old, who was accused of having acted between 2008 and 2017, was also ordered to compensate the victim, Cléophée Herrmann, to the tune of 5.1 million euros, as well as 50,000 euros in damages. -interests
His two daughters were also prosecuted for concealment of abuse of weakness. Mathilde Hickel, 33, and Julia Hickel, 40, were both sentenced to one year in prison. They will each have to pay more than 150,000 euros to the victim, aged 34.
Five years required
At the hearing, prosecutor Eric Haeffele requested five years in prison for the main defendant, including three suspended probation, and a committal warrant. He had denounced “a method known in the sectarian field” of isolating the victim, two expert opinions of which had highlighted the “particular vulnerability” since the death of her mother when she was 11 years old, then of her grandmother in 2008.
It was the latter which made Cléophée the sole heir to the family fortune: more than 11 million euros from the fallen industrial empire of the Schlumpf family, who had made their fortune in textiles and whose collection of prestige cars are unique in the world.
At the hearing, Josiane Seiler’s lawyer argued that if she was responsible, it was “by ricochet”. He had mentioned the potential responsibility of Patrick Herrmann, father of Cléophée, who died in 2021 and “significantly absent” from the trial, in the spoliation. The investigation concerns 5.4 million euros stolen, but the initial inheritance exceeded 11 million, the council underlined.
Ruined heiress to the Schlumpf fortune, Ms. Herrmann reiterated at the hearing her thirst for “justice” in the face of her former “surrogate mother” and her two daughters.
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