The Tapie-Crédit Lyonnais case will see a major breakthrough on Wednesday – The HuffPost

JUSTICE – This is one of the most sprawling and incredible French court cases of the past 30 years. Justice is due to rule this Wednesday, November 24, on appeal in Paris, on the fate of the five former co-convicts of Bernard Tapie in the controversial arbitration case of Credit Lyonnais in 2008, on which there are suspicions of fraud.

This case is one of the facets of the titanic dispute that arose nearly thirty years ago between Bernard Tapie and his historic bank, Crédit Lyonnais, around the resale of the sports equipment supplier. Adidas in the early 1990s.

Do you occasionally hear about this affair but don’t remember all its twists and turns? The HuffPost suggests that you start over from the beginning, to fully understand the different issues.

A story of shoes

If “the affair” really took shape under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, a little step back will not hurt. 28 years ago, in 1993, Bernard Tapie sold Adidas to a group of investors for 315.5 million euros. It is then the Crédit Lyonnais which takes care of the sale.

Problem: the public bank is part of the investor group. In 1994, a year later, Adidas was entirely bought by Robert Louis-Dreyfus (who was himself already part of the group of investors) for 701 million euros. Or more than double the initial sale price. For Bernard Tapie, it is clear, Credit Lyonnais knew that Adidas was worth much more than 315 million euros and managed to become part owner of it in order to make juicy profits by selling it a year later.

Then began a very long legal battle between Bernard Tapie and … the State. Why the state? Because in the meantime, the bankruptcy of Crédit Lyonnais forces the State to create the “Consortium de Réalisation” (CDR), responsible for managing the bank’s debts.

The legal proceedings continued until 2005 and the judgment of the Court of Appeal: the CDR must pay 135 million euros in compensation to Bernard Tapie. Except that the Court of Cassation quashed this judgment in 2006, which suggests that the State has a good chance of winning its case. Problem, several years of legal proceedings are to be expected, which dissuades the highest authorities.

And that’s where comes in Christine Lagarde, from the following year.

After 15 years, the jackpot for Bernard Tapie

Why have we sometimes talked about the “Tapie-Lagarde” affair? Because in 2007, Christine Lagarde, then Minister of the Economy under Nicolas Sarkozy, asked the CDR to agree to seize a private arbitral tribunal, made up of three people who have nothing to do with justice and who will decide.

The two parties having previously agreed on the fact that they would respect the decision taken, whatever it may be, as well as on the members of this “tribunal” which is not one. To put it simply, it’s like asking a neighbor to come and arbitrate a household scene to avoid the divorce paperwork. If the practice is common between two companies, it remains extremely rare when the State is involved.

On July 11, 2008, this famous court condemns the CDR, and therefore the State, to pay 295 million euros to Bernard Tapie, including 45 million for moral damage, i.e., including interest, the sum of 403 million euros. ‘euros. At this time, the Ministry of the Economy waives all recourse and tries to reassure taxpayers: no problem, once the debts and costs have been removed, Bernard Tapie will not receive more than 50 million euros.

Problem: in September 2008, The chained Duck says Bernard Tapie will finally receive 210 million euros. For its part, the Assembly’s finance committee mentions a similar sum, between 200 and 220 million euros. The person formally denies it, estimating that he will not touch more than 30 to 40 million euros overall.

It is from there that it gets complicated a little, because the decision taken by Bercy in 2007 will result not one, but two investigations.

How Christine Lagarde fell

To ask the CDR to accept this arbitral tribunal, Christine Lagarde justifies herself in this way: the battle between Bernard Tapie and the State has lasted too long and has cost a lot of money in proceedings. So it’s time to stop the fees.

But the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation is not convinced. He therefore decided in May 2011 to seize the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR, the body empowered to judge members of the government for acts committed in the exercise of their function) to investigate the former Minister of Economy. On August 4 of the same year, the CJR finally opened an investigation. Three years later, on August 27, 2014, Christine Lagarde was indicted for “negligence”. On December 19, 2016, she was found guilty of “negligence” but was exempted from punishment.

If the choice of recourse to private arbitration in 2008 is criticized, it is above all the insistence shown by the minister that poses a problem for the CJR. Christine Lagarde is also criticized for not having attempted an appeal after the decision of the arbitral tribunal even though several specialists had advised her to do so, according to The world.

The CDR directly targeted, Claude Guéant finally cleared

At the same time, on September 18, 2012, a judicial investigation was opened against X for “abusive use of social powers and concealment of this offense”. The famous CDR created by the State to manage the debts of Crédit Lyonnais is targeted. More particularly in the viewfinder of justice, Jean-François Rocchi (indicted in August 2013) and Bernard Scelala (indicted in November 2014), respectively ex-president of the CDR and ex-president of the structure controlling the CDR ( EPFR, public financing and production establishment).

What then do the investigators seek to know? Apart from the involvement of the CDR, the objective is above all to know whether the orders to proceed to a private arbitration would not have come from higher than Bercy, in this case from the Elysee. This is how the office and home of Claude Guéant, secretary general of the Élysée at the time of the arbitration in 2008, were raided at the end of February 2013. In June of the same year, he was also placed in custody. on sight for three days of interrogation.

If Bernard Tapie believes that the former secretary general of the Élysée does not “(know) anything about the file”, he does not deny having met him several times. In addition, according to The Express, Nicolas Sarkozy would have met on several occasions Bernard Tapie, before and after his election in 2007. But the former President of the Republic, summoned as a witness refuses to go before the judges. Finally, Claude Guéant is not sent back to correctional.

Bernard Tapie must reimburse

The private arbitration rendered in 2008 supposed to end the proceedings, which awarded the sum of 403 million euros to Bernard Tapie, is also immediately controversial.

This sentence was finally annulled in civil proceedings for “fraud” in 2015: Bernard Tapie is ordered to reimburse the CDR to the tune of 403 million euros, a decision definitively validated in May 2017 by the Commercial, Financial and Economic Chamber of the Court of Cassation.

General relaxation in 2019

In March 2019, the time has finally come for the trial of this incredible case. Bernard Tapie, as well as five other defendants –Stephane Richard, Maurice Lantourne, Pierre Estoup, Jean-François Rocchi and Bernard Scemama-, are tried and face heavy penalties. The general prosecutor’s office thus required five years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros against the businessman.

Finally, the criminal court pronounces a general release on July 9th, considering that “nothing in the file allows to affirm” that the arbitration was the subject of “fraudulent maneuvers” or of any “fraud”. The Paris public prosecutor’s office appealed against this judgment on July 16 2019.

The second trial from 2020

In the fall of 2020, a second trial begins, quickly suspended due to the deterioration in the state of health of Bernard Tapie, who is fighting against double cancer of the stomach and esophagus since 2017. Hearings resume in spring 2021 in his presence, but end without him, again prevented by illness. His death on October 3, 2021, at the age of 78, puts an end to the public action against him. The appeal court’s decision is due three days later, on October 6, but it is postponed after the death.

It is therefore more than a month and a half after this date, this Wednesday, November 24, that the Court of Appeal will render its decision. If Bernard Tapie is no longer of this world, the court must render a long-awaited decision for the five other defendants tried by his side. The court of appeal must rule in a case where the prosecution has again requested convictions for a “fraudulent scheme”. The defense pleaded in chorus a new release, ensuring in particular that the scam was “fabricated” and the facts “twisted”.

The public prosecutor’s office required three years of imprisonment, including a firm one and a 100,000 euros fine against Stéphane Richard, at the time chief of staff of the Minister of the Economy Christine Lagarde, tried for complicity in the embezzlement of public funds.

The public prosecutor also asked for a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 300,000 euros for one of the three arbitrators, now 95 years old, Pierre Estoup, absent from almost all of the two trials for health reasons. .

For the historic lawyer of Bernard Tapie, Maurice Lantourne, 65, the advocates general have called for the same sentence, with three years of professional prohibition.

The heaviest sanction was required against Jean-François Rocchi, 66, former head of an entity responsible for managing the liabilities of Crédit Lyonnais: three years’ imprisonment, two of which were closed, as well as 100,000 euros in ‘fine.

Three months suspended and 10,000 euros fine were finally claimed against Bernard Scemama, 78, also at the head of a defeasance structure.

In any case, the judgment of the court of appeal will not mark the end of the proceedings in this sprawling case. In order to reimburse the sums collected, commercial justice has been examining for several years the deadlines proposed by the former companies of Bernard Tapie. In April 2020, they were placed in compulsory liquidation. The court of appeal will look into the matter again on December 9. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was also seized in May, for the first time, of the legality of the sale of Adidas by Crédit Lyonnais.

See also on The HuffPost: Funeral of Bernard Tapie: The images of the last tribute of the Marseillais