Bernard Tapie on the market of Plan of Cuques, march 16, 1992, with a basketball of Adidas brand in the hand (Photo Georges GOBET. AFP)
How Bernard Tapie can he repay the millions of euro collected in 2008 in a dispute with the Credit lyonnais ? After the cancellation of the plan, which was spreading its debt over six years, the threat of a judicial liquidation of his companies back on Monday in front of justice.
The tribunal de commerce of Paris must review, in camera, the legal procedure concerning the companies of the businessman, who was sentenced to go to the State 404 million was received during the arbitration that was supposed to put an end to his standoff with the Credit lyonnais resale Adidas (DE:ADSGN) in 1994.
In June 2017, this court had approved the plan for the safeguarding of the holdings GBT (Group Bernard Tapie) and FIBT (Financial real Estate Bernard Tapie). Proposed by the former boss of Olympique de Marseille, who at age 75 is reached of a cancer of the stomach, and this plan he avoided the seizure of his property.
But the court of appeal of Paris reversed the April 12, this judgment for “lack of funding”.
The backup procedure “does not provide for any transfer of the assets (…), no source of funds will come to this title to provide liquidity to execute the plan”, which provided for a refund spread out over six years with a first payment in 2018, estimated the judges in their judgment, sending the case back to the court of commerce.
The prosecutor’s office in Paris has then filed an application requesting the conversion of the backup plan in winding up by the court to allow the seizure of assets of Bernard Tapie.
“We are preparing a new backup plan that takes into account the observations of the court and which will enable a full repayment of the amounts owed by the companies GBT and FIBT”, told AFP the lawyer for Mr. Tapie, Me François Kopf.
Cash request a delay in the hearing, it intends to submit a draft to the court “within three weeks” and also challenge the admissibility of the request of the public prosecutor.
– Back in Belgium –
On the eve of the cancellation of the arbitration by the court of appeal of Paris, December 3, 2015, the business man, the current owner of The newspaper la Provence, had placed his companies in a backup procedure. It made their assets inaccessible to creditors, including the hotel de Cavoye to Paris, home of the spouses Tapie, as well as a villa in Saint-Tropez and a private mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
A portion of these assets were already unavailable, as entered in the pane on the criminal record, which is worth to Bernard Tapie being returned to corrections for “fraud” and “misappropriation of public funds”.
The judgment of the commercial court of June 2017 to have approved the safeguard plan proposed by the business man himself as the subject of a criminal procedure, since the opening by the prosecutor of Paris, a judicial investigation for “fraud”.
In question including: an estimate found to be incorrect the value of The newspaper la Provence, owned by GBT, and a shareholders ‘ agreement which could either increase the debt or decrease the dividends to come.
“The CDR (Consortium de realisation, the entity in charge of managing the liabilities of Crédit lyonnais and of which the State is the sole shareholder, editor’s note) and the public prosecutor are put in a logical grounding of Bernard Tapie, had denounced in January, François Kopf.
The businessman, who also attempts to make inaccessible his property in Belgium, has suffered a recent setback. The Liège court he was removed in April the management of its companies GBTH (Group Bernard Tapie Holding company) and AMS (Aircraft Management Services), that are in parallel the subject of a proceeding in bankruptcy in Brussels.
The amount that Bernard Tapie will actually pay is also the subject of a tug of war justice: the COR, which is estimated to receive $ 404 million euros plus interest earned up to the end of 2015, has launched an appeal against a decision that has planed his claim of 117 million euros.
