On Thursday, Luxembourg's court of cassation rejected Macias' appeal against a decision made by the court of appeals. Macias' Luxembourgish lawyer reacted after the decision, claiming it is a disaster for his client.
Enrico Macias will have to pay the liquidator €30 million as per the court's ruling.
The court case is one of many in the Landsbanki affair, which concerns the Icelandic bank which is now eleven years into its liquidation process. In both the first and second trials, Macias was ordered to reimburse the considerable sum to Landsbanki.
The artist had been seeking a €5 million loan to renovate his St Tropez villa in 2007 and was pointed towards the Landsbanki bank in May 2007. The bank proposed a significantly higher sum to Macias, provided he invested in speculative products. Ultimately, he received a €35 million loan, corresponding to his villa's value.
The singer received a direct transaction of €9 million and the remaining €26 million were invested in three separate life insurances. The judges of the Luxembourgish court of appeal accepted the bank's demand to have the money recuperated.
The court of cassation, an appellate court of the highest instance, interprets the relevant law for the trials it deals with. The court's ruling ends the affair in Luxembourg, but a trial remains ongoing in France.
The singer's lawyer, Pierre Hurt, criticised the Luxembourgish judges for not listening to his warning, as he asked what would happen if the French court ruled in Macias' favour. He believed the court in Luxembourg has three options, which are to dismiss the second ruling, reject the appeal (which occurred), or follow the public prosecutor and submit a preliminary question to the European Court of Justice.
Hurt specified that the judges of the court of cassation did not believe it was useful to consider European law and how the Luxembourgish case must bear the French trial in mind. He explained that it depends on what happens in the French trial and stressed that the affair is far from closed.
The singer's lawyer believes the French verdict may yet be proclaimed in 2019.
Landsbanki affair: Prosecutor seeks to refer preliminary question to EU Court of Justice
