A couple convicted of abuse of weakness to the detriment of Michael Lonsdale

A couple of friends of Michael Lonsdale were sentenced Tuesday to one year and eight months in prison in a case of abuse of weakness at the expense of the Franco-British actor who died in 2020, announced the Paris judicial court. The heaviest sentence was handed down by the Paris criminal court against Anne Facérias Hervouët des Vignes, found guilty of “acts seriously harmful to” Michael Lonsdale. In question, checks and three wills written in the actor's hand at the end of 2019, including one for the benefit of an association, Diaconie de la Beauté, launched in 2012 and notably intended to bring artists closer to Catholicism.

This document established Diaconie de la Beauté as the actor's universal heir and disinherited his nephews and niece, according to the Paris judicial court. However, Anne Facerias Hervouët des Vignes and her husband, Daniel Facerias, convicted of concealment of abuse of weakness and breach of trust, “were fully aware of the state of vulnerability and the situation of weakness” of the actor, a practicing Catholic who had put on several shows with the couple relating to religion and the life of the Saints.

The first had also explained “her increased or even constant presence from 2018 with the actor by this vulnerability”, notes the court. She was also found guilty of breach of trust for having “misappropriated funds to the detriment of the Diaconie de la Beauté association of which she was president by making 34 transfers from the association's account to her own for a minimum amount of 90,000 euros”. In addition to the prison sentences, the court sentenced Diaconie de la Beauté and the endowment fund linked to it to fines of 20,000 and 40,000 euros respectively.