Balkany Couple Faces New Scrutiny Over Alleged Marrakech Villa Ownership

Definitely for the Balkanys who never stop with legal entanglements. Prosecuted for tax fraud and money laundering, their trial which had opened at the Paris Criminal Court at the beginning of May, had to be suspended, at the request of the couple’s lawyers, to be postponed to a later date. The reason given? The absence of Isabelle, 71, Patrick Balkany’s wife, "hospitalized after ingesting medication".

Today, a new element has just been added to the long list of grievances against the couple. For the record, the investigating magistrates inform that "in 2009, Patrick Balkany, 70 today, with the help of a Saudi developer awarded a major contract in Levallois, his right-hand man Jean-Pierre Aubry and the lawyer Arnaud Claude, acquired a sumptuous villa in Marrakech. He takes care, this time, not to appear in any document, in Switzerland or in Singapore," say the investigating magistrates.

Despite several indicators that inform of the probable ownership of this villa by the Balkanys, the couple denies the facts. It is in fact a luxurious oriental villa of 1,200 m2 nestled in the palm grove of Marrakech, moreover described as the culmination of a virtuoso scheme. A case of "money laundering" and "corruption" for which the Balkanys face, according to Europe 1, "up to 10 years in prison".

Tracing the money used to buy the villa in Marrakech, the investigators managed to establish its official selling price, which would be 2.75 million euros. This amount, the media advances, comes according to the investigating magistrates, "from a commission paid to Patrick Balkany by a Belgian industrialist and copper magnate from Katanga, George Forrest, in exchange for his help for a contract in Africa". Which Patrick Balkany obviously denies, claiming to "hate corruption" and not having been involved in any "secret political financing".