The Consortium of Achievement (CDR), the entity responsible for managing the liabilities of Crédit Lyonnais, received 143 million euros in reimbursement for the 2008 arbitration in favor of Bernard Tapie, the consortium said in a press release on Tuesday.
The businessman, who died on October 3, 2021 from cancer, was awarded 403 million euros following an arbitration aimed at settling his dispute with the former public bank.
This highly controversial sentence was overturned by civil justice in 2015 for fraud. A long legal battle followed concerning the terms of repayment and the quantification of the debt, strongly contested by Bernard Tapie from the outset.
Since 2021, according to the press release, the shares of CDR, 100% owned by the state, have led to the sale of three major assets: the Hôtel de Cavoye, rue des Saints-Prés Paris (80 million euros), the 89 % of the regional press group La Provence (81.1 million euros) and the villa La Mandala Saint-Tropez (81.2 million).
convictions
Of these sums, the CDR received 143 million euros, corresponding to the Hôtel de Cavoye and a down payment on La Provence. The sale price of La Mandala remains seized within the framework of the criminal proceedings, as well as approximately 70 million euros of financial assets, specifies the CDR.
In this criminal section, four men, including the former boss of Orange Stphane Richard, were sentenced in November 2021 by the Paris Court of Appeal, which ruled that the arbitration had been biased in favor of Bernard Tapie. This case is not closed: the defendants have lodged appeals in cassation.
To these goods sold might be added the sale of a residence in Seine-et-Marne, but following taking into account the costs and rights, in particular the tax authorities. The total sum will therefore remain far from the current amount of the debt, affirms the CDR, which amounts to 660 million euros with interest.
Judicial guerrilla
In August, the CDR hoped, in fine, to recover around 320 million euros gross, according to a close source.
For the year 2022, the CDR announces paying 100 million euros to the state – 72 million in profit and 28 million in reserves – and paying 10 million in corporate tax.
Over the period 2013-2022, it made more than 270 million euros in profit, from the defeasances of Crdit Lyonnais, Comptoir des entrepreneurs and UIC-Sofal.
We are satisfied with the action taken for years to recover what the debtors of Crdit Lyonnais, in particular Bernard Tapie, owe the state and the French people. The 110 million euros that we will pay them thanks to our record net profit of 2022 are the direct product of these long-standing efforts, said in the press release Franois Lemasson, president of the CDR since 2013.
We regret, however, that Bernard Tapie and his entourage led a veritable judicial guerrilla for years, multiplying unfounded appeals (…), he adds.
