Geneva art dealer said to owe $360 million in taxes
Less than a month after Swiss dealer Yves Bouvier managed to
shake off the latest legal barrage from his former client and current nemesis,
Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, he now faces potential charges of tax
evasion after a Swiss criminal court opted to unseal documents related to his
finances on August 3.
Rybolovlev has long alleged that Bouvier defrauded him to
the tune of $1 billion on 38 art deals for which he paid roughly $2 billion
over the course of more than a decade. Those same deals are the basis of the
allegations of tax evasion in Switzerland.
The unsealed documents reveal calculations from
Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration that Bouvier owes as much as $360
million in unpaid taxes based on his earnings from Rybolovlev. A representative
of the Federal Tax Administration told Artnet News via email that it “does not
give any information regarding specific taxpayers nor does it comment on publications
or court decisions.”
Notably, the Swiss federal criminal court that voted to
unseal the documents does not have the authority to rule on whether Bouvier
evaded taxes, but simply on whether the documents ought to be sealed. Decisions
“on tax evasion regarding direct taxes are in the competence of the cantonal
tax authorities and not in the hands of the Federal Penal Court,” according to
the representative. The original tax investigation was authorized due to what
legal documents described as “a well-founded suspicion of serious fiscal
offenses.”
Attorneys for Bouvier did not immediately respond to Artnet
News’s request for comment. Sources said they plan to appeal the ruling.
Since financial matters are shrouded in secrecy in
Switzerland, it is often difficult to know how inquiries like the one conducted
by the tax administration evolve—hence the reason for the intense scrutiny of
the Monday ruling.
The tax administration initially opened an investigation
into Bouvier in March 2017, having accused him of not declaring all of his
income between 2007 and 2015, an allegation that also extended to two of his
companies. Although these companies are offshore, the tax authorities believe
that their “effective administration” took place from Switzerland and that they
are therefore taxable, according to a report in Le Temps.
According to The Art Newspaper, authorities estimated that
Bouvier owed $180 million in unpaid taxes at the start of the investigation.
That number has now reportedly doubled.
TAN reports that the dispute centers on whether the art
sales were made in Switzerland or in Singapore, where Bouvier asserts he moved
in 2009 (and therefore would not be liable for paying Swiss taxes after that
time). Tax authorities assert that his Singapore residence is not valid and,
furthermore, that the deals were made in Geneva.
The tax administration has reportedly confiscated an
unidentified property of Bouvier’s that is estimated to be worth $4.9 million
in what is described as “a pledge.”
Though a judge in Monaco last month found that the
investigation into Bouvier there was biased, Rybolovlev has continued pursuing
legal remedies for the alleged fraud in the US, London, Paris, and Geneva.
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