L'Agefi owner allegedly withheld 54 million francs from treasury

Alain Duménil is alleged to have withheld nearly 54 million francs from the taxman, the French Swiss magazine L'Hebdo and the Tages-Anzeiger reported Thursday. The French-Swiss businessman, who lives in Crans-Montana in the Valais, allegedly failed to report dividends from Paris-based real estate company Acanthe Développement, in which he is a majority shareholder, to tax authorities. The unpaid federal, cantonal and municipal taxes amounted to more than 20 million francs.

The tax evasion is said to relate to the period from 2003 to 2011. The existence of proceedings against Duménil emerges from several rulings made public last week by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. These rulings show that Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf gave her consent last November to open a special tax investigation against the French-Swiss businessman.

House searches and seizures

In this context, house searches were also carried out, in particular at the suspect's place of residence. In parallel, the Federal Tax Administration ordered the seizure of Duménil's real estate and accounts.

In its decision of July 22, the Federal Criminal Court granted a request by the tax administration to lift the seal on documents seized from a bank. Duménil had defended himself to no avail. He had based his request on the diplomatic immunity he enjoyed as a representative of Madagascar's permanent mission to the UN. It also emerges from the decisions of the Federal Criminal Court that the suspect had submitted a request to be able to withdraw 100'000 francs a month to cover his living expenses. This request was also not granted.

With reference to press reports about "a suspected case of tax evasion in Valais", the Valais tax administration also took a stand on Thursday. It has taken the necessary measures in this dossier and is working closely with the Department for Criminal Matters and Investigations (ASU) of the Federal Tax Administration (FTA), it says in a statement.

Valais tax administration demanded investigation

The cantonal tax administration (KSV) had requested the FTA's Criminal Affairs and Investigations Department to conduct an investigation against a taxpayer residing in Valais. The cantons are authorized to do so in cases of suspected serious tax offenses. The investigation would be carried out by the Department of Criminal Matters and Investigations (ASU) in cooperation with the FTA. The ASU has various means of coercion and investigation at its disposal, such as seizure, searches, lifting of banking secrecy, questioning of witnesses and others, which the cantonal tax administrations do not have.

As it is bound by tax secrecy, the cantonal tax administration cannot provide any further information on this dossier, the statement continues.

The wealth of Alain Duménil, who has been based in Switzerland since 1987, was estimated by the business magazine Bilanz in 2012 at between 100 and 200 million francs. In the meantime, he is no longer listed in the ranking of the 300 richest people in Switzerland because his fortune is said to have fallen below the CHF 100 million mark.

In 2009, the businessman acquired a majority stake in the business newspaper L'Agefi. He holds a 51 percent stake. The co-owner is Antoine Hubert, founder of the Genolier hospital group. In October 2013, the two businessmen had expressed interest in a possible purchase of the daily newspaper Le Temps, before Ringier bought the shares from Tamedia last April

Appeal announced

Alain Duménil's lawyer, Alexandre Faltin, pointed out that the investigation was still at the very beginning. His client has arguments that he will use against the attitude of the tax authorities. Without getting to the bottom of the matter, the Federal Criminal Court had issued several decisions. Appeals against some of them have been filed with the Federal Supreme Court, Faltin said.

L'Agefi editor-in-chief François Schaller wrote in a reaction published Thursday that the episode did not call into question the newspaper's development, goals, projects or shareholder support. (SDA)