ONE of Europe’s highest-profile tax evasion cases will go to a Paris court on Monday for the first time.

The so-called “France Offshore” Affair has been in the headlines for years.

Now French judges will finally start to hear the prosecution case alleging that French nationals used offshore companies, created via a website called France Offshore and a Latvian non-resident bank, to avoid some €300 million in tax.

France Offshore and the bank, Rietumu Banka of Riga, deny any wrongdoing. Irish tax exile Dermot Desmond and Celtic shareholder is a shareholder and management board member of Rietumu.

The bank, which is also used by owners of Scottish limited partnerships, has previously been fined for breaches of money-laundering legislation.