AXA BOSSES QUESTIONED IN “MONEY LAUNDERING” CASE

AXA supervisory board chairman Claude Bébéar and CEO Henri de Castries have been questioned by police investigating PanEuroLife, a Luxembourg-based assurer suspected of involvement in money laundering. French authorities use the phrase in a sense that includes the receipt of funds on which tax has not been paid and no link to organised crime has been suggested. It is alleged that money deposited in French post offices was transferred to Luxembourg and converted into PanEuroLife assurance contracts, allowing the owners to receive tax-free income which was not declared to French tax authorities. PanEuroLife said that it was “operating under European Law, which gives us the freedom to provide these services throughout the EU”. AXA said that Mr Bébéar and Mr de Castries had been “heard as witnesses” as “a normal procedure” to help the investigation into the tax-avoidance allegations. PanEuroLife was acquired by AXA when it bought French insurer UAP in 1997 before being sold on to US-based Nationwide Holdings in November 1998.