I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 263 Fine, fine, still fine!

When the Duke of Chartres heard the judge's verdict, he immediately became happy and turned around to celebrate with several of his lawyers.

The lawyer with the fat on his face stood up and bowed slightly to the judge: "Dear Judge, please sign an execution document to order the banks to unblock the Duke of Orleans's bank account. Oh, it should be the Duke of Chartres' bank account now." property."

Dibo suddenly frowned. According to legal procedures, he should indeed sign the unblocking document, but in this case, what should the Crown Prince explain?

Just when he was in trouble, Danton, who had been silent until now, stood up and raised his hand to the lawyer of the Duke of Chartres: "Please wait a moment, Mr. Balthasar."

He turned to the judge's bench and said loudly: "Your Honor, I think the specific amount of the Duke of Orleans' estate should be verified in court first. Otherwise, once the seal is unsealed, creditors may suffer losses."

"Creditors?" Lawyer Balthasar frowned and sneered, "I'm afraid you are mistaken. Mr. Public Prosecutor, the Duke of Orleans does not have any debts..."

"Really?" Danton gestured to his assistant to hand the information to the judge, and also gave a copy to the Duke of Chartres, "Your Majesty, please turn to the second page.

"Here are the testimonies of the Marquis of Ludeau and many other managers of the banking guild. In March 1775, the Duke of Orleans invested 1.8 million livres from the City Trade Bank in the British 'Helle River Steel Company'.

His assistant immediately handed over transcripts of the two documents to the judge and to the lawyer of the Duke of Chartres.

Lawyer Balthasar interrupted him impatiently: "Yes, some insignificant violations should be dealt with in another case."

Lawyer Balthasar glanced at the document, his eyes widened immediately, he flipped through it hurriedly, and then shouted angrily: "How is this possible?! Just because there was no review, a fine of 16 million livres was required!!"

He first saluted to DuBoer and other judges, and then glanced nervously at the Duke of Chartres, but then he remembered the instructions of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

"The above-mentioned investments were all transferred by the Duke of Orleans to the Bank of England in the form of bills of exchange and were not subject to investment review. This violates Article 12 of the Finance Act of 1774..."

Danton said to DuBoer: "Your Honor, please ask Mr. Berni, who is responsible for the accounting of these violation cases, to explain the details to you."

"December 1776, from the Discount Bank of Paris to Holland..."

Dandong mentioned 15 investment records in one breath, spanning more than ten years and involving an amount of more than 13 million livres.

“In May 1776, 2.2 million livres were invested in the British ‘Carman Brothers Textile Company’ from the Paris Discount Bank.

Soon, a middle-aged man wearing glasses, a wig and extremely neat clothes was summoned to appear in court.

"No, no, this is not a 'violation', but a serious illegal act!" Dandong waved his hand vigorously, "Please look at this fine document issued by the financial audit commissioner."

He immediately took a deep breath, took out the prepared manuscript, cleared his throat and said: "Your Honor, first of all, I will explain to you the basis for the fine against the Duke of Orleans for this illegal investment in 1775.

"After this money is invested in British Steel, it will play an extremely critical role in supporting the research and development of its smelting technology, which will give it an overwhelming advantage over similar French companies in hard steel products..."

He added a lot of professional terms and finally concluded: “It can be seen from this that from 1775 to the present, due to the illegal investment of the Duke of Orleans, at least seven steel plants in France have closed down, resulting in losses of more than 3 million livres.

"If the Duke of Orleans had submitted an application for investment review to the financial department, I believe that the investment would have been rejected and the money would have stayed in France to help improve local steelmaking technology..."

Diboer's eyes lit up when he heard this, he could still calculate like this! Which genius came up with this idea? Now His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's orders were finally settled.

Lawyer Balthasar immediately said angrily: "It's simply ridiculous! Let alone more than ten years ago, even the current investment review is just a show! Even if it was reviewed back then, it would not be rejected..."

Mr. Berni, who was in charge of accounting, retorted coldly: "You are seriously slandering the government department. I can produce a lot of evidence to prove the high efficiency and dedication of the audit department.

"As for your statement that it would not be vetoed in 1775, please provide concrete evidence."

"I..." Lawyer Balthasar paused. The ticket just now had the signature of the reviewing officer from that year, who knows what evidence he could come up with.

Berni looked forward to the various benefits promised by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince after the case was over, and continued boldly: "As for the investment in May 1776, its impact will be even greater..."

By the time he finished explaining the basis for all the more than ten fines, bowed to the judge and left, it was already 6 p.m.

DuBoer was about to announce the adjournment of the court when Danton jumped in and said, "In addition to these illegal investments, the Duke of Orleans also committed a large amount of tax evasion."

As he spoke, he glanced at Robespierre without trace. These financial records of the Duke of Orleans were obtained by the latter, which was of great help in analyzing the tax situation of the Duke of Orleans.

Dandong continued: "A total of 3.2 million livres in unpaid taxes are involved. The advice given by the financial department, late tax fees and fines total 15 million livres."

The Duke of Chartres almost spit out blood when he heard this. The two fines just now confiscated more than half of his father's assets.

Danton was still stating impassionedly: "In addition, the Duke of Orleans also committed a lot of violations in the previous transactions of farmland and manor... The amount of the fine for this part is...

"There is testimony that the Duke of Orleans is involved in illegal slave trading...needs to pay a fine..."

With the identity and status of the Duke of Orleans at that time, no one would mention these so-called violations. Even if someone pursued them, they would probably be pardoned by the king.

But things are different now. You have lost all your people, so if you want to be square or round, isn’t it just a matter of someone else’s words?

Joseph has seen too much news in later generations about Western politicians using similar methods to punish their opponents - even Trump, a living person, was almost bankrupted by the old man, let alone a dead person.

Joseph only had to copy the work of later generations casually, and the Duke of Orleans's little assets were really not enough.

Danton kept talking for an hour and a half, and the Duke of Chartres was already in despair - no need to calculate carefully, my father's little property should have been fined.

Dandong suddenly paused. Just when everyone thought he was finally done, he took a breath and said: "The above are minor illegal records. Next, I want to talk about the Duke of Orleans inciting a large number of southern provinces. The riots caused huge losses to the country.”