PARIS (AFX) - Xavier Niel, founder and controlling shareholder of French internet service provider Iliad SA, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence for embezzling funds from a sex shop that served as a front for prostitution.
The 39-year-old was also fined 250,000 eur for putting his hand in the till at the Roxane sex shop in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
Niel, who had invested in Roxane and two other sex shops, was accused of pocketing about 5,000 eur per month, in cash, from the establishment over a three-year period.
He was acquitted last year of charges of controlling prostitutes after the court found insufficient evidence that he knew prostitutes operated on the premises.
One of eight people accused in the case, Niel declined to speak to reporters outside the courtroom.
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