The Palace of Justice saw several cases on Tuesday, December 12, mostly dealing with those found in possession of some sort of substance. However, there was one court case that stood out from the rest involving a Ukrainian man and 11,260 undeclared euros.
The gentleman in question, a 40 year-old resident of both the Principality and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat since the start of the Russian invasion of his homeland, was arrested with the large sum of euros in undeclared cash on September 29, 2022.
Anyone leaving or entering Monaco with over 10,000 euros in cash must declare this to the police, the declaration did not occur in this instance, but the defendant argued that he was not aware that he had so much cash on his person and that not all of it belonged to him.
“He declared that half of this money belonged to him and that the other half belonged to a friend, who had gone to Miami two weeks earlier,” magistrate Jérôme Fougeras-Lavergnolle told Monaco-Matin, adding that the defendant “thought he had less than 10,000 euros on him after spending at Ikea.”
No doubt a very valued customer of the Swedish furniture store, but not so popular in the Palace of Justice, the court decided to confiscate the defendant’s entire 11,260 euro sum and impose a fine of 5,000 euros for good measure.
