PARIS — New York-born international art dealer Guy Wildenstein was hauled into a Parisian courtroom on Monday and accused of shady dealings that shielded his family fortune from French tax collectors.
French authorities claim Wildenstein, 70, his late brother Alec Wildenstein, other family members and their money managers owe the republic as much as $602 million in back taxes.
He could get 10 years behind bars if convicted on all charges.
When Daniel Wildenstein slipped into a coma, shortly before dying in 2001, officials said, defendants feverishly hid assets from his fortune — including properties in New York and the Virgin Islands, art gallery holdings, including some from New York’s Wildenstein & Co., racehorses, a private business jet and a 75,000-acre ranch in Kenya.
The properties were sheltered in trusts located in tax havens like the Switzerland, the Bahamas, Guernsey, Nassau and the Cayman Islands, the investigating judges said in court documents.
The case was opened after Guy’s stepmother, Sylvia Roth Wildenstein, who has since died, feared she was being swindled and brought documents to French authorities, asking them to investigate.
Wildenstein’s name is one of the biggest in the art world, although New Yorkers best know the family for Guy’s sister-in-law, Jocelyn “Bride of” Wildenstein, who was formerly married to Alec.
Jocelyn underwent extensive plastic surgery, giving her a catlike face, in the late 1990s as her marriage to Alec crumbled.
Defense lawyers for Guy Wildenstein, Alec’s last wife Liouba Stoupakova, Alec’s son Alec Jr., and other defendants argued on Monday that French authorities have no jurisdiction over their art.
Courtroom tables could barely accommodate prosecutors, the half-dozen defendants and nearly 20 defense lawyers.
The trial judge in Paris on Monday delayed proceedings until France’s Court of Last Appeals issues a ruling on the defense’s constitutional claims on Wednesday.
French media have dubbed this trial “Dallas on the Seine,” comparing the fabulously wealthy family’s foibles to the famed American prime-time soap “Dallas” of the 1980s.
Even though Guy Wildenstein was born in New York, he is a French citizen, is a close friend of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, and has been a major support of his center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.
In 2009, the French leader awarded Guy Wildenstein the Legion d’Honneur.
With Post Wires