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CRIME

Frenchwoman jailed for killing her child

The Israeli grandfather and French mother of a four-year-old French girl were sentenced to life in prison on Monday for having murdered the child, public radio reported.

A court in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva, close to Tel Aviv, sided with the prosecutor who sought the maximum terms for Ronny Ron, the grandfather of Rose Pizem, and the child’s mother, Marie-Charlotte Renaud.

Renaud was in a relationship with Ron, the father of her ex-husband, Rose’s father.

On May 19, the court convicted Ron of killing the little girl, whose remains were found in a suitcase in a murky river near Tel Aviv in September 2008 after weeks of intensive searches and speculation.

And it convicted Renaud for having “solicited” the murder, saying she used her sway with Ron to convince him to carry out the crime.

“The accused incited her companion to get rid of Rose, knowing the influence she had on him and the possible consequences for Rose,” the court said on Monday, according to a copy of the sentence read on public radio.

Ron, the court added, “who has a violent personality, finding no other solution, decided to kill Rose and sink her in the river to get rid of her.”

Attorneys for the two said they would appeal the sentence.   

The case shocked Israel, both for the gruesome murder of a young girl and the messy family background.

Rose’s parents, Renaud and Benjamin Pizem, moved to Israel from France in 2004 but divorced the following year after Pizem discovered his wife was having an affair with Ron, his father.

Pizem moved back to France but Renaud stayed behind with Ron, who obtained custody of her daughter. The couple now have two children of their own.

Israeli police have described the case as “one of the most shocking in the country’s history.”

BANKING

Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Denmark’s largest bank has agreed to pay a multi-million sum to end legal pursuits in France linked to alleged money laundering in its Estonian subsidiary that resulted in heavy US penalties

Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Danske Bank will pay €6.3million (47million kroner) to end French financial authorities’ investigation.

An independent auditor’s report published in 2018 alleged Danske Bank’s Estonian unit allegedly laundered some €200billion through 15,000 accounts from 2007 to 2015.

The payment was agreed on August 27th with France’s national financial crime prosecutors and validated by a court on Wednesday. The agreement does not involve any admission of guilt.

Danske last December pleaded guilty in the United States and paid a $2billion fine.

The bank last October set aside an amount roughly equal to its US fine in expectation of legal pursuits in several countries.

Probes are underway in Estonia, Denmark, and Britain.

France charged Danske in 2019 with organised money laundering, which it denied, saying it was unaware of its Estonian subsidiary’s activities.

Tracfin, the French finance ministry’s anti-money laundering unit, found suspect movements on two accounts linked to a Franco-Russian businesswoman who has since been handed a two-year suspended sentence.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Danske’s counsel Niels Heering said his institution was “happy to reach this accord which for us is a way to close this chapter”, adding that “cracking down on financial fraud remains a priority” for the bank.

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