Soulez Lariviere acted in the Wendel case, a landmark case in criminal tax law.
Several executives and senior managers of the investment company had been brought before the Paris Criminal Court to answer charges of tax fraud.
They were accused of having participated in a tax arrangement constituting an abusive scheme.
After being convicted at first instance, several executives lodged an appeal.
The Paris Court of Appeal accepted the arguments put forward by the lawyers at Soulez Lariviere Avocats, finding that their client could not be accused of any criminal intent in devising this scheme and that she had merely followed and applied the instructions contained in the various memos and opinions provided by the firm responsible for the tax arrangement.
More specifically, the judges noted that “given, on the one hand, the complexity of the issue of abuse of rights in relation to tax deferral at the time of the events and, on the other hand, the ambiguous nature of the guidance provided by a renowned tax adviser, who wrongly reassured them as to the validity of the proposed scheme, the intention to commit tax fraud is not sufficiently established in this case”.
The Court of Appeal therefore acquitted their client and three other defendants.