Depardieu faces new legal proceedings

A new investigation into French actor Gérard Depardieu has been launched. The artist, who already has several cases of rape and sexual assault , is now being investigated for aggravated tax fraud and money laundering , according to local media reports.

According to investigative website Mediapart, Depardieu , 76, has been the subject of an investigation by France's National Financial Prosecutor's Office for a year into alleged tax fraud since he established his tax domicile in Belgium in 2013.

Mediapart reported that the actor of Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) and Asterix and Obelix (1999-2012) is suspected of having repatriated the advertising revenue he earned in Russia to a tax-free Belgian account, thus avoiding paying wealth tax in France .

According to the publication, the actor has not been living regularly in his mansion in the Belgian town of Néchin (in the Wallonia region), bordering France .

Depardieu 's lawyer, Jérémie Assous, described the accusations against his client in Mediapart as "inaccurate."

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The most famous French actor, who has not yet appeared in this investigation, faces a trial in two months for sexual assault and abuse of two workers during the filming of the film Volets verts by Jean Becker in 2021.

He has at least two other proceedings underway: an accusation of sexual assault and rape of actress Charlotte Arnould admitted for processing in 2020 and the investigation into a complaint of sexual assault filed in 2014 by a former assistant.

Due to social and media pressure, members of the French government even suggested withdrawing the Legion of Honour - the highest award in France - from the actor in 2023.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out such a possibility, arguing that a court conviction would be necessary. Macron defended the presumption of innocence of the interpreter, of whom he declared himself "an admirer".

At the end of 2023, a group of artists including Carla Bruni and Victoria Abril signed an article in support of the actor, which outraged French feminism.

Depardieu sparked controversy in France by adopting Russian nationality in 2013 in protest against the tax policies of then-president François Hollande , a socialist.

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