French police detained and questioned AXA’s Management Board Chairman Henri de Castries, and his predecessor the company’s founder Claude Bébéar, who now presides over its Supervisory Board, about a massive tax evasion scheme involving PanEuroLife, a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of UAP, which AXA acquired in 1997. It has since been sold to the U.S. group Nationwide Holdings.
An AXA press release pointed out that De Castries and Bébéar had been called only as witnesses, but the two were ordered to reappear before juge d’instrucion Dominique de Talancé, who’s conducting the investigation, today, and an unconfirmed report on the French television news stated that they would be charged in the case.
French legal procedure requires any persons who have knowledge of a possible crime to give evidence, after which they may or may not be named as defendants. There is no equivalent of the U.S. 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination, and failure to testify is in itself a crime.
Jean Peyrelevade, the present head of French bank Crédit Lyonnais, who headed UAP until 1993 and set up the PanEuroLife subsidiary, was also questioned yesterday. The company and many of its officials are alleged to have helped wealthy French individuals evade taxes by illegally transferring large amounts of cash and securities to secret accounts in Luxembourg.
AXA retained control over PanEuroLife for less than two years, and sold it at the end of 1998. It explained the move as part of its strategy of building around operations within each country rather than a pan-European approach.
Topics Law Enforcement AXA XL
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