Enlarge image
Bernard Tapie
Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
The former majority owner of Adidas, Bernard Tapie, was attacked by burglars in his house near Paris.
The 78-year-old and his wife Dominique were asleep when four thieves broke into them shortly after midnight, reports the AFP news agency, citing French investigators.
The intruders beat the couple and tied them up with electric cables and then fled with their prey.
Dominique Tapie was reportedly able to free herself and made it to the neighbors' house.
From there she alerted the police.
Among other things, the thieves stole jewelry.
The value of their prey was initially unclear.
While Dominique Tapie was brought to the hospital with minor injuries, Bernard Tapie, who had cancer, refused to be taken to the clinic.
Tapie is a colorful manager and ex-politician who is highly controversial in France.
In Germany he is best known as the former majority owner of Adidas.
The sale of his shares in the German sporting goods manufacturer occupied the courts for years: In an arbitration that was later lifted, he was awarded more than 400 million euros in compensation because the then state bank Crédit Lyonnais allegedly cheated him.
Then there were allegations of fraud: Among other things, there was a suspicion that Tapie had received preferential treatment because of his proximity to the then head of state Nicolas Sarkozy.
Under the Socialist President François Mitterrand, Tapie was Minister for Urban Development in the 1990s.
He is also responsible for one of the biggest scandals in European football history: he was sentenced to eight months in prison at the end of 1995 for the bribery affair involving the Olympique Marseille club, which he bought in 1986.
He had previously had to file for personal bankruptcy.
vet / AFP