Publisher Jacques Glénat suspended from the Legion of Honor

Publisher Jacques Glénat , sentenced in 2021 to 18 months in prison, suspended, for tax evasion, has been suspended for six years from the Order of the Legion of Honour and the Order of Merit, according to two decrees published Thursday in the Official Journal.

The founder of Editions Glénat, a comic book company, can no longer, "for a period of six years," exercise his "rights and prerogatives attached to his status as a knight of the Legion of Honor," states the first presidential decree, dated July 8.

He is also deprived of the right to "wear the insignia of any French or foreign decoration belonging to the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honour." Also dated Tuesday, the other decree removes from him, for the same period, "the exercise of the rights and prerogatives attached to his status as a Knight of the National Order of Merit."

The code of the Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit provides for the suspension of the wearing of decorations or the exclusion of these orders following a conviction.

Jacques Glénat, 73, was convicted in 2021 by the Paris Criminal Court for tax evasion revealed by the " Panama Papers ," a scandal that erupted in the spring of 2016.

The Grenoble native was listed for owning a Seychelles-based company that purchased artwork. He decided to close it down when the British Virgin Islands forced companies to disclose the names of their shareholders in 2014.

In 2021, he "fully" admitted his guilt to these charges of "aggravated tax fraud laundering" during a preliminary hearing on guilty pleas. He also accepted the sentence proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), which is in charge of the investigation, namely an 18-month suspended prison sentence, a €200,000 fine, and the confiscation of €470,000.

At the time, the public prosecutor had mentioned the "fraudulent scheme" and the "sophisticated arrangement" put in place in 1997 by Mr. Glénat, via "the interposition of several companies in Belgium and then in tax havens", for a total tax loss estimated at 2.2 million euros.

Jacques Glénat was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2018 under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.