1
WHILE the central character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s famous novel The Gambler turns into ashes everything he touches, French businessman Bernard Tapie on the contrary was reputed for his gift of Midas, the mythological Greek king who transformed into gold all that he laid his fingers on.
Born in a working class family in 1943, Tapie’s childhood dream was to become a pop singer. Although he was able to record a few songs as a teenager, he remained largely ignored. In a hurry to turn his fantasies into reality and wanting to be a star champion, he participated in Formula 3 race. He crashed his car and, according to widespread belief, got his futuristic visions in the hospital bed where he remained in coma for the next three days.
Once recovered he soon found a modest employment as a TV set salesman and being very good in his job, opened his own electronic equipments shop within the next two years. From thence onwards he would stop at nothing and move on at an astronomical speed towards success after success.
His acquisitions during the 1980s were phenomenal. He developed a keen interest in manufacturing plants, sportswear enterprises, football clubs, music groups, bicycle racing teams and casinos, to mention only a few, that were declared bankrupt by the law. He would pay the symbolic one French franc to buy them each and by his imaginative ideas turn them into profit-making businesses before reselling them at prodigious prices. He was already a multi-millionaire by the time he reached the age of thirty-five.
Tapie’s appetite however wasn’t restricted to moneymaking only and his obsession with star power would never abandon him. Under François Mitterrand’s presidency he was appointed minister of cities in 1992; he would also frequently appear as a TV show host and play a role in movie director Claude Lelouch’s 1996 film Hommes, femmes mode d’employi. He would repeat his acting performances in stage plays and TV series as well.
Tapie’s legal dilemmas began practically at the same time as his triumphs. In 1993 he faced corruption charges for having manipulated many of the matches between the football teams he owned and their adversaries.
Then there were successive court cases the details of which would be tedious if repeated here; suffice it to say he was acquitted a number of times but was also often awarded cash fines. He even spent eight months in prison in 1997 on tax fraud accusation.
The longest and apparently unending episode of his adventures is the Credit Lyonnais case that Tapie won in 2008 after a 15-year legal battle and was awarded a compensation of €404 million. But Credit Lyonnais did not give up and filed an appeal in a higher court.
Last week the supreme court of France announced its final ruling. The defendant must reimburse the amount of €404m to Credit Lyonnais — with interests.
At some €300m, Tapie’s net worth is supposed to be far less than the fine he is under a legal obligation to pay. According to the disclosures by a number of French newspapers and magazines since after the verdict, even if he gets rid of his villa at the French Riviéra (€50m), his private jet aircraft (€20m), his Parisian apartment (€15m) and his luxury yacht (€20m), he would still be far short of paying his debt.
Is this the end of the road for the 74-year-old French Midas? Everyone here is convinced if he is unable to raise the required nearly €450m he would have to spend another term in jail.
Everyone that is, except Tapie himself. He says he is going to file an appeal at the European Court of Justice!
The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017
