AN Italian princess who defied Jersey’s Royal Court for years by refusing to reveal the location of assets making up her multi-million-pound fortune has been told she cannot “simply walk away” from her contempt, even after finally settling the long-running feud which triggered the case.
Princess Camilla de Bourbon des Deux Siciles, who lives in Monaco, was found in contempt of court in 2019 after repeatedly ignoring an order to disclose the whereabouts of valuable assets – including a $66 million Paul Gauguin painting – belonging to her mother, Edoarda Crociani, a 1960s film star who performed under the name Edy Vessel.
This was so that a trust previously estimated to be worth more than $130m – which her sister, Cristiana, successfully argued in court had been plundered to her disadvantage –could be reconstituted.
Princess Camilla was ordered to pay a £2m fine as a result of failing to disclose the whereabouts of key assets, but, as of July this year, had paid just £133,333.32 of the fine.
Although a global settlement was reached in the litigation last year, Jersey’s Royal Court nonetheless has decided that the contempt – described as “wilfully disobedient, flagrant and continuing” – will only be discharged if she brings the total paid to £1m for defying the court orders.
“There is a high public interest in the Court enforcing its orders,” the Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, who was sitting with Jurats Hughes and Opfermann, wrote in a judgment.
“It would set an unfortunate precedent and send the wrong message were it open to a party to flagrantly disregard the orders of the Court, together with any properly imposed penalties, and then simply reach a compromise and walk away without further consequence.”
The judgment described Princess Camilla’s contempt as “both contumacious and egregious in the sense that it has been wilfully disobedient, flagrant and continuing”, adding: “It would not appear to us to be just, that she is simply able to walk away from that contempt merely because she has reached a compromise with the Plaintiff.”
In order for the contempt to be discharged, it was decided that Princess Camilla would need to go “a meaningful way to purge it” by paying £866,666.68.
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Who is Princess Camilla de Bourbon des Deux Siciles?
The younger daughter of Edoarda Crociani, Princess Camilla married into Sicilian royalty in 1998.
Her Instagram showcases a life of glamour, featuring trips to St Moritz and celebrity acquaintances including Donald Trump, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Richie.
In 2020, she was featured in the BBC documentary ‘Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich’.
