After the summatiom of the prosecution case on Wednesday calling for a prison sentence of 42 months for Flavio Becca, accompanied by a fine of €250,000 and the confiscation of the watches, Becca’s lawyer, Hervé Temime, launched his counter-arguments on Thursday.

Temime insisted that no one had been wronged by the frenetic acquisition of watches worth some €18 million. Ten years after the last purchase, no company had collapsed, the tax authorities had not lost any money and 182 tax audits had not led to any complaints. He implied that there was no need for a prison term or even a suspended sentence for his client.

On the issue of concealment, the entrepreneur's defence produced a final piece of evidence, Grossfeld's “ledger”, which they says indicates how the purchases of watches were reintegrated into the accounting system in a proper and timely manner.

Temine also argued that the the Council of State had rejected an amendment from the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on the maximum fine of €25,000 for white-collar crime regarding the abuse of corporate asset, and could not therefore understand why the public prosecutor was demanding a fine of  €250,000 in this case.

After another hour of pleading on Thursday, Mr Becca's lawyer once again demanded that his client be acquitted. “Mr. Becca did not recognise himself in the portrait drawn by the prosecutor regarding the acts of which he is accused. Throughout his successful career, he has shown a constant concern for the interests of his group and its companies, even though at one point they were in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros.”

As Becca has rejected the opportunity to address the court, the judge set the date for the pronouncement of a verdict for 4 March.

A version of this article was published on Paperjam.lu in French.