Italian heiress Camilla de Bourbon is set to pay a £2million fine as part of a bitter inheritance dispute over her mother’s €250million (£216million) trust fund.
Princess Camilla, who lives in Monaco, was fined in December after Jersey’s highest court ruled that she had ignored an order to reveal the location of valuable assets owned by her mother to help rebuild the family’s disputed Grand Trust.
Last week, the Royal Court of Jersey turned down her application to delay paying the penalty for contempt of court ahead of the February 22 deadline.
However, Princess Camilla has been granted permission to appeal against the fine at a hearing in May, and will be repaid the £2million if her appeal is successful. She is being advised by a legal team led by former judge Sir Anthony Hooper.
Princess Camilla said: ‘It is my intention to pay the £2million fine in full and I look forward to it being returned when I succeed in my appeal.’
The dispute over the Grand Trust dates back to its restructuring in 2010 that has triggered more than a decade of litigation.
Princess Camilla was ordered by the court to help trace the trust fund’s missing assets after its trustees – Princess Camilla’s mother Edoarda Crociani and French bank BNP Paribas – were found guilty of mismanaging the trust.
It is unclear how much wealth the Crociani family has. BNP says it is "a significant fortune" of "hundreds of millions of dollars." Part of it is in Dutch BVs, and Croci International nv (on Curaçao). The court in Curaçao granted permission to BNP to sell that company. In December, it was decided in summary proceedings that Camilla, her mother and United Trust must provide access to the papers of that company.