The heir to the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion empire has been convicted of tax fraud.
Arlette Ricci has been sentenced to a one-year jail term and fined €1 million.
The court has also confiscated property worth €4 million.
The 73-year-old has been found guilty of concealing from the French tax authorities in an off shore HSBC account..
Ricci must also repay millions in back taxes for the period 2007 to 2009.
Jean-Marc Fedida the lawyer for Arlette Ricci said:” We wanted to conduct an exemplary
trial as a kind of warning to those who hold fraudulent bank accounts abroad so they can step forward and with bowed head to the tax inspector.”
Arlette Ricci is the first of 50 French nationals to face trial over tax evasion in the HSBC case.
The HSCB private banking arm is under investigation for large scale tax fraud after the names of thousands of clients were passed to media outlets in the so-called “Swissleaks” scandal.
