Former Levallois-Perret mayor Patrick Balkany will appear in Nanterre court on February 20 for public funds misappropriation. He is suspected of using municipal police and vehicles for private purposes from 2010 to 2015. This case adds to other ongoing legal proceedings against him.
Patrick Balkany, a controversial figure in French right-wing politics and former mayor of Levallois-Perret, faces another legal proceeding. The Nanterre prosecutor's office announced on Monday that the octogenarian will be tried for public funds misappropriation, relating to events during his tenure from January 2010 to May 2015.
The investigation began in December 2012 following a report from two municipal police unions. A judicial inquiry opened in December 2013 and was assigned to the economic delinquency repression brigade of the Paris judicial police. Placed under formal investigation in July 2020, Balkany is accused of employing municipal officers as personal drivers and diverting city vehicles for private use.
The prosecution has issued a non-prosecution decision for charges such as illegal interest-taking, money laundering, or complicity in misappropriation. The former mayor's lawyers, Robin Binsard and Romain Dieudonné, responded sharply: “We will be present at the hearing, alongside Patrick Balkany, to formally contest these unfounded and slanderous accusations,” they told AFP.
On February 20, Balkany is also summoned for another misappropriation case involving Levallois's former economic development director, who was paid after retiring in 2012. His counsel mocked learning of the summons through the press rather than official channels.
Recently, the Évreux sentencing court granted Balkany conditional release for the remaining 18 months of a 2023 prison sentence for financial offenses, a decision appealed by the prosecution. Declared ineligible by the Paris Court of Appeal in 2023, he remains active in local politics ahead of municipal elections.