Flavio Becca: Money Laundering Trial

In March 2021, a court issued a suspended two-year prison sentence and a fine of €250,000 to Flavio Becca for misusing company funds and money laundering. The businessman appealed the decision the same day it was announced, and the new trial is set to begin on Monday afternoon. The case involved a total of 842 luxury watches with an estimated worth of €18 million, including 100 by Rolex, 100 by Chopards, and around 30 by Patek Philippe. The majority of these watches were purchased by different Becca-owned firms between 2004 and 2011.

Authorities first became aware of Becca’s practice in 2011 when the tax office filed a complaint. The watches were at times written off as expenses and gifts, and it often seemed unclear who received them. In Autumn that same year, authorities conducted 13 searches of Becca properties and found more than 600 watches.

During the trial, the businessman conveyed that he gifted another 200 watches to members of his family. He further stressed that the 300 watches bought by his company Promobe Finance SPF should be considered investments. He explained that the rest were private speculation and that he was forced to buy entire series to get collector’s items.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor’s office saw the case as misuse of company funds and confiscated 550 watches. Additionally, Becca was awarded a €20,000 fine for each recorded watch that could not be located. Hervé Termine took on the defence of Flavio Becca in last year’s trial. Termine had previously represented famous individuals, including actor Gérard Depardieu and film maker Roman Polanski.

Sentence

A Luxembourg court sentenced entrepreneur Flavio Becca to two years in prison and a €250,000 fine, plus the confiscation of watches, for abuse of company assets. 

No lawyer for the stars. No Flavio Becca. This Thursday morning, at the end of a long legal saga, the court sentenced Becca for abuse of company assets with two years in prison and a fine of €250,000.

“The court warns Flavio Becca not to reoffend within five years from the date of this judgment,” the judge added before ordering the return “of a certain number of seized objects”–some 643 watches belonging to Promobe Finance–to Promobe Finance and the confiscation of all other watches, including the 187 he says he gave to members of his entourage.

If these cannot be recovered, the court will add a fine of €20,000 per watch, or €3.74m. In the event of non-payment of this fine, Becca risks another 200 days in prison per watch, i.e., a maximum of 3,600 days, this duration being capped at ten years.

In civil matters, the court has dismissed Becca’s former business partner Eric Lux, and his companies, of their claims for compensation. The entrepreneur’s two Luxembourgish lawyers declined to comment on the matter. The state prosecutor had called for a 42-month prison sentence and a fine of €250,000. The case began in 2011 during a search of a safe at Becca’s home, following an alert to the prosecutor’s office by the tax administration of a large number of valuables billed to Becca’s companies. The 900 or so watches seized–bought in half a dozen countries and stored in Becca’s private safe–were estimated at €18m.

According to other local media sources, Luxembourg real estate and sports investor Flavio Becca has received a two-year suspended prison sentence and a €250,000 fine for misuse of company funds. A Luxembourg court sentenced Flavio Becca to two years in prison and handed him a €250,000 fine in relation to embezzlement.

The case began in 2011 when tax authorities alerted the Public Prosecutor’s Office of several valuables being purchased through the entrepreneur’s companies. Subsequent searches of Mr Becca’s home led to police discovering and seizing several hundreds of luxury watches, for an estimated total worth of nearly €18 million. In Thursday’s hearing, the judge also ordered the confiscation of many of the watches; for watches which cannot be seized, Mr Becca will receive an additional fine of €20,000. Earlier this year, the prosecution had called for a 42-month prison sentence, a fine of €250,000 and the confiscation of the watches.

On the fourth and final day of Flavio Becca’s appeal trial, both prosecution and defence argued their cases for why the initial sentence should be either upheld or overturned. In March 2021, a court issued a suspended two-year prison sentence and a fine of €250,000 to Flavio Becca for misusing company funds, as well as for money laundering.

On the fourth day of trial, Mrs Lorang, one of Becca’s lawyers, argued that her client will suffer severe consequences if he is convicted of appropriating company funds. It will mean that he can no longer request credits, which will restrict his business activities. The prosecution is holding on to the verdict from the initial trial, demanding that Becca be sentenced for abusing social goods. They dropped the point of money laundering, but still want all of the concerned watches to be seized.

Verdict on Money Laundering

In 2011, authorities confiscated 842 watches from the businessman. Becca purchased most of them with company funds, arguing they were business investments. However, prosecutor Grasso noted that the watches cannot be seen as investments given that they were no longer in their original boxes and lacked the respective bills. The verdict in the appeal trial was announced on 6 July.

Since then, the Criminal Court of Luxembourg was dealing with the case of businessman Flavio Becca, who is accused of misuse of company assets and misappropriation of funds. In particular, this involves the purchase of more than 850 luxury watches, with a total value of €18 million. A large proportion of these watches were purchased between 2004 and 2011 via 18 of Becca’s companies, even though the commercial activities of these companies had nothing to do with luxury watchmaking, according to the magistrates. 

On the third day of the so-called “luxury watches” trial, Becca’s lawyer, Hervé Temime, pleaded his client’s acquittal on Tuesday morning. There is no abuse of social property in this case, said Temime in his plea. The famous lawyer, who is known across France as “the lawyer of the powerful” (l’avocat des puissants), described his client’s business practices as sometimes “atypical”, but without any ill will. Nor can one speak of concealment, Temime explained, when the watches had all been accounted for. In addition, his client had offered to provide explanations regarding the watches after the search.

It was above all the work of the judicial police that was the focus of the lawyer’s criticism. The search, which did not deserve this name, had been “extravagant”, according to the lawyer. No concrete inventory had been drawn up, no expertise of the hundreds of watches had been carried out. The police had seized neither the cases nor the documents, i.e. the original guarantees. During the trial, Temime criticised, he had to ask his client to bring a photo of the case from his home, because 10 years ago the police had forgotten to take a one.

The purchase of every watch appeared in the annual accounts of the companies, stated Becca’s second lawyer. It would therefore be wrong to say that the promoter wanted to enrich himself personally at the expense of his companies. This was not necessary either, the lawyer suggested. In 2009, his client’s fortune amounted to €400 million. This figure had “significantly” increased until 2019.

Temime also pointed out that in the 190 tax checks carried out by the Luxembourg administration, no irregularities had been found in the balance sheets of the companies with which the watches had been purchased. There was also no indication that Becca had taken illegal dividends from these companies. The fact that some of the watches had been booked as gift expenses before 2007 had been a mistake admitted by the accountant at the time, the lawyer added. After ten years, the public prosecutor’s office still had no concrete evidence, Temime said in front of a packed courtroom. The case had only come to light a few years ago on a suspicion of corruption, which has still not been proven to date, criticised the defence.

That following Wednesday, the court of appeal issued a suspended one-year prison sentence as well as a monetary fine to businessman Flavio Becca. Becca was found guilty of money laundering and misusing company funds. In a first ruling, Becca initially received a suspended two-year prison sentence and a fine of €250,000. The court of appeal then confirmed the accusations of misusing company funds, money laundering, as well as the fine. However, the suspended prison sentence has been reduced by twelve months.

Furthermore, they decided to seize all of the 842 luxury watches that Becca purchased with company funds between 2004 and 2011. Their combined estimated worth amounts to €18 million. Becca’s lawyer Lydie Lorang noted that they will appeal on points of law. Becca’s spokesperson has meanwhile announced that they will not comment on the case before receiving the written sentence.