World

Ricci heiress convicted of tax fraud

April 13, 2015 6:09 pm

The heir to the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion fortune has been convicted of tax fraud by a Paris court after hiding millions in an offshore HSBC account.

Arlette Ricci, 73, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay a €1 million (£720,000;$1.1m) fine.
The court also confiscated two properties worth four million euros (£2.9m;$4.2m).

HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm is being investigated after a leak revealed large scale tax fraud.

Ms Ricci, who can appeal, was given a two-year suspended sentence on top of her one-year custodial sentence.

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Her daughter, Margot Vignat, 51, was also convicted and given an eight-month suspended sentence.

Ms Ricci was accused of hiding millions of euros from the French authorities to evade tax using an offshore HSBC account.

She was ordered by the court to pay millions in back taxes for the period of 2007-2009, with the exact amount to be set at a later date.