Day: 27 October 2016

TV5 Monde is looking for new shareholders. The French public chain has approached Monaco and Luxembourg to help spread its capital base, and the two small states could soon join other investors, France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland.
The money raised would fund the development of the international chain and a transition to high definition and live subtitling in French and English. The chain also wants to expand the distribution of its themed channels, Tivi5 World (currently distributed in Africa) and TV5 Monde Style HD (broadcast in Asia and North Africa), and a “World Tour of la Francophonie”.
All these developments are part of their 2017-2020 strategic plan, to be debated by current shareholders at the end of November in Switzerland.
In recent years, the chain had asked its shareholders to increase their subsidies, but this approach seems to have reached its limits, hence the search for new capital.
The public television services of the participating nations feed TV5 programming, but the situation would be different for both Luxembourg and Monaco, as these two states do not have a public TV channel. The Principality was a shareholder in TMC (Télé Monte-Carlo) until June, when it exchanged its 20 percent holding against 1.1 percent of French channel TF1, which held the balance in TMC.
Public grants that fund French public broadcasters, which hold two-thirds of the capital of TV5, account for almost 90 percent of the budget. The rest of its income comes from subscription revenue in countries where the service is a paid model, such as in the US, and advertising revenues.

Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo have won the prestigious Best Hotel Spa in Europe Award. The Prix Villégiature Awards are in their 13th year, and were presented in Paris by a jury of 23 journalists working in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Having been thoroughly renovated and reopened two years ago, Thermes Marins occupies more than 7,000 square metres and continues to deliver the promise of Francois Blanc, the founder of SBM, to deliver “the dream”.
Christine Zoliec, Managing Director of the spa and its 100 staff, said: “It is an honour to receive such an award, which confirms the efforts and expertise of our multidisciplinary team, mobilised every day to provide an exceptional service to our customers.”
 

Mr Philippe Etienne, Ambassador of France in Germany, has presented the insignia of Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour to Her Excellency Isabelle Berro-Amadei, Ambassador of Monaco to Berlin.
In his speech, HE Mr Etienne traced the main stages in the career of Monaco’s Ambassador, citing notably her “judicial career marked by excellence” and “universally recognised legal qualities”. He recalled that HE Ms Berro-Amadei was the first Monegasque magistrate to exercise the functions of judge, then President of Section at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, from 2006 to 2015.
The Ambassador also emphasised the links between HE Ms Berro-Amadei and France, in particular her studies at the University of Nice and at the National School of Magistrates. He highlighted her major involvement as judge-rapporteur for French business in Strasbourg and her close relationship with French institutions, such as the Constitutional Council and the State Council.
Finally, HE Mr Etienne thanked HE Ms Berro-Amadei for her relentless defence of the French language.
 

A Nice man has been sentenced to four months in prison for fraud in Monaco.
The young man entered the Monaco courthouse freely Wednesday but emerged in handcuffs and sentenced to four months in prison for forgery and misappropriation of 12 cheques, in addition to reimbursing the plaintiff for €9,000.
The accused stood before the court with little remorse. He created a company called “Fullcharg”, specialised in data plans recharging for phones, but forged cheques while working for another company to the tune of €53,586.
The accused had an accounting job with BFM experts in Monaco and the first sign of trouble was in 2014 when his clients were pulled up for non-payment of VAT. Unperturbed, he claimed that the secretary had made an accounting error. In fact, rather than giving the cheques made out by his clients to cover their VAT payments to the Monaco tax authorities, he was paying them directly into his own company.
“It was easy to use other people’s money,” stated President Florestan Bellinoza. “Who would think of stealing from your employer’s clients? These people already trust you with their VAT returns.”
The accused tried to explain his actions. “I knew it was wrong but it was a quick way to get money.”
The judge cut him off, “Your clients handed you a cheque and you kept the money. You worked for less than a year at that business and you never responded to the arrest warrant.”
According to Me Roger Tudela, lawyer for the civil parties, “Everything went wrong when the manager started to work alone. The company’s president met a client who complained of lost cheques. From October, other clients complained that their VAT payments had not been received by the tax authorities, and the company president quickly suspected that the accountant was behind the €33,565 loss. The lawyer is also claiming €10,000 in damages
The prosecutor Alexia Brianti wonders if this is not the only company scammed.
As far as the accused was concerned, it was easy money… €53,000 over four months, but it quickly got out of hand. He was already known to the police for embezzlement, when he misappropriated 8 cheques to the amount of €20,000 with another company.
He’s not a big time criminal. He’s a petty thief. He’s expecting a child. Give him a reasonable sentence, requested his lawyer. The judge decided otherwise. (Source: Nice-Matin).