Djibril Cissé tried for tax fraud in the city of Bastia, a year in prison with a suspended sentence required

2024-09-11 20:50:06

Former French football captain, Djibril Cissé, was tried on Wednesday in his absence for money laundering fraud in Bastia where a one-year prison sentence was suspended and a 100,000 euro fine was required. The judgment will be made on November 13 by the Bastia criminal court. The 43-year-old former player is specifically suspected of money laundering, tax fraud, misuse of company assets and removal of accounting entries. Bastia’s lawyer, Jean-Philippe Navarre, asked for an exemption for the acts of tax fraud initially targeted by the prosecution.

A simple joint stock company (SASU) located in Furiani (Haute-Corse), the residence in Corsica of the former Sporting Club de Bastia footballer, is in the sights. While the company was placed in compulsory liquidation in 2020, the current account associated with it has a debt of 550,000 euros, which is, according to the prosecution, a misappropriation of the company’s assets.

The investigation noted that he did not declare this amount to the tax authorities, which indicates tax fraud. The lawyer said: “He deposited money into his bank account. Laundering tax fraud is, according to the website of the Ministry of Justice, reintroducing into the economic circuit money hidden from tax services. The investigation also reported a tax debt of 230,000 euros for failure to declare VAT and company tax.

For the defense lawyer, the microenterprise was used to manage the income linked to the image of Djibril Cissé, during his rehabilitation as a DJ and football consultant for television. “He’s been going through this for years. It is big money to the tax authorities. There can be no misappropriation of money since there is no tax loss. He had problems with the accounting firm that did not manage the file properly and did not inform him,” argued Mr. Malcolm Mouldaïa.