The Balkany's conviction is final, but the legal soap opera continues. All civil penalties and interests will have to be reconsidered.

The Court of Cassation confirms the guilt of the Balkany spouses for aggravated money laundering, but not the confiscation of the Giverny mill or the damages. At the end of a judgment rendered this Wednesday, June 30 by the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation, the sentences handed down a year ago against Isabelle and Patrick Balkany in the "aggravated money laundering" section of their financial schemes will have to be re-examined in the months to come. come through the Paris Court of Appeal. Their guilt, on the other hand, is definitively acquired.

If the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation confirmed this June 30 the Balkany's guilt decision pronounced by the Court of Appeal, which is final, it has on the other hand pronounced two partial cassations on the penalties and the civil interests. The first cassation relates to the confiscation of the sumptuous mill of Giverny (Eure), where the Balkany spouses still live. The Court of Cassation finds that they are only usufructuaries of this property, having made a donation-partition for the benefit of their children in 1997. Therefore, the Court of Appeal could only order the confiscation of the usufruct rights , and not the confiscation of the property itself, judges the supreme court.

The second cassation concerns the million euros in damages awarded to the State. The Court of Appeal had explained this amount by the costly investigations conducted around the Balkany spouses. But the cost of the legal investigations remains the responsibility of the State, and the Court of Appeal did not justify the amount of damages pronounced, slice the Court of Cassation. Consequence of these partial cassations: all the sentences against the Balkany will have to be re-examined.