He appeared in front of the press emaciated, weakened, with long hair in his mansion in Giverny, which he had joined shortly before 9:30 a.m. He said he was «relieved» after several months in solitary confinement without meeting any other inmate.
On Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal granted his request for sentence adjustment. He was sentenced in 2019 to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.
The journalists present in front of the remand center had not seen him leave the remand center but his entourage assured AFP that he had left.
His wife Isabelle had tweeted earlier: «WEATHER ALERT Vigilance Orange Eure et
The former Baron des Hauts-de-Seine and his wife Isabelle Balkany had been found guilty at first instance and then on appeal of tax evasion between 2009 and 2015. More specifically, they are accused of not having paid tax on the wealth between 2010 and 2014, for having paid a reduced amount in 2015, and for having paid a grossly undervalued income tax between 2009 and 2014.
Mr. Balkany had been imprisoned in 2019 as soon as he was convicted, then released in February 2020 for health reasons, then placed under an electronic bracelet in March 2021. He had been reincarcerated in February for not having respected the obligations related to wearing his electronic bracelet.
His wife, whose wearing of the electronic bracelet had also been revoked, had been hospitalized after having, according to her husband, made a suicide attempt in February. She returned to her home on June 4 pending a possible summons to court.
In addition to this conviction for tax evasion, Patrick Balkany and Isabelle Balkany were also definitively sentenced, in June 2021, for aggravated money laundering of tax evasion and for illegal taking of interest. Only the question of the quantum of the sentence remains pending, with a new trial scheduled for next October.