The Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday condemned on appeal the Latvian bank Rietumu for laundering tax fraud in the France Offshore case. However, the fine has been significantly reduced.

Sentenced with a fine of 20 million euros, a quarter of that pronounced at first instance, the Latvian bank Rietumu had indeed been an essential cog in this vast system of tax evasion for French customers between 2008 and 2012.
His then boss, Alexander Pankov, was acquitted of part of the facts and sentenced to two years' suspended imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros - against four years suspended at first instance.

The court upheld the ban on practising in France for five years for the bank, as well as the amount of damages to be paid to the French state - more than 10 million euros jointly and severally for all the defendants - but limiting them to four million for Alexander Pankov.

Tuesday's decision comes a decade after the fact, when France Offshore was dangling the "tax haven for all".