Bernard Tapi, former president of the Olympique de Marseille, has died at the age of 78.
Marseille:
Larger-than-life French business mogul Bernard Tapie, who died at the age of 78 on Sunday, embodied the best and worst of high-rolling free market capitalism.
His flamboyant career spanned business, sports, politics and the arts, but also scandal and prison.
Tapi, who revealed in 2017 that she had cancer of the stomach and esophagus, made a huge fortune, lost it and then made it back again, only to end her life after a scandal broke out, Which entangled Christine Lagarde, who now heads the European Central. Bank.
“If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s making dough,” the permanently banned tycoon once claimed.
But in 2015 he was forced to admit: “I am doomed. I have nothing.”
Like many of his flamboyant announcements, this was to be taken with a pinch of salt—though he was really confined to his last few mansions.
corporate raider
Born in occupied Paris on January 26, 1943, Tappy had a modest beginning, trying his hand as a scoundrel at night selling TVs day in and day out to the working class in Belleville.
But he soon gave up singing and amassed a small empire, taking over unsuccessful companies by the age of 30, reaching 50 within a few years.
In 1990 he made headlines by buying the German sportswear company Adidas – a purchase that would later come back to haunt him.
He showcased his wealth by purchasing a 72-metre (236-foot) yacht, along with a sprawling Parisian townhouse and a string of mansions on the French Riviera.
A sports fan with a boxer build, Tapi also used his fortune to buy a cycling team that won the Tour de France twice.
In 1986 they bought Olympique de Marseille, one of France’s best-loved football clubs, giving the team five consecutive league victories and the 1993 Champions League title.
On the back of that success he built a political career, winning elections to the French Parliament in 1989 and 1993 and becoming a deputy of the European Parliament in 1994 after serving as a minister under President François Mitterrand.
Insult
But things began to unravel for the father of four children as he faced several legal troubles, including match-fixing allegations, during his time in Marseille.
The claims tarnished the team’s Champions League victory – the only time a French club has won the trophy.
Players from a smaller club have revealed that they accepted a bribe to ease Marseille in a match before their Champions League final.
Tepee served six months in prison in 1997 for his role in the scandal, part of it in solitary confinement.
The affair led to the collapse of his business empire, and he was declared bankrupt and banned from serving as a director of the company or in any public office.
Bounce back
Friends and family described him as a broken man, but his old showbiz skills helped him to bounce back and turn to acting, most notably in a popular TV series in which he played – without irony – a police inspector.
And his lucky streak dates back to 2008 when a government arbitration panel admitted he had been the victim of fraud when it sold Adidas in 1993, ruling that the brand was undervalued.
He was awarded a compensation payment of 404 million euros ($450 million), the size of which sent shock waves through France.
Tapie paid off his debts and was able to purchase the Hersant Publishing Group of France, a string of properties, and another yacht, which he named “Reborn”.
But the case was appealed and in May 2017 a court ordered them to refund the payments – and they were struck again.
The saga also implicated Lagarde, who was France’s economy minister when the panel ruled in TAPI’s favor and was accused of poorly handling the matter.
After his cancer became public, Taapsee declared that he would “fight as usual”.
“The thought of dying, it doesn’t bother me at all,” he told Le Monde newspaper. You will need to be “crazy for not being happy with my life”.
In July 2019, he was acquitted of the charge of defrauding the state in a controversial arbitration case. However he was not out of the woods yet as a new case was brought against him.
The trial began in May when Tapi was already seriously ill in hospital and prosecutors demanded five years in prison and a 300,000 euro fine. The judges were to deliver their verdict on October 6.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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