It is a trial where two worlds mingle: that of great swindling and that of organized crime.
Seven men aged 26 to 49, including the former golden-boy Arnaud Mimran and the former boxing champion Farid Khider, appear from this Tuesday before the Assize Court of Paris for the kidnapping, kidnapping and the organized gang extortion of a wealthy Swiss financier in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) and Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) in January 2015.
The kidnappers shout: "French police!"
That evening around 8 p.m., the victim, who had come especially from Geneva, left the Raphaël hotel in Paris to go to rue Gallieni in Boulogne-Billancourt, where she had an appointment in a restaurant with Arnaud Mimran in the hope of meet a banker. An intermediary invites him to get into a car, but suddenly, four hooded men open the door, shouting "French police!" "They tied my wrists with plastic ties," said the financier. The kidnappers evoke the name of Arnaud Mimran, hit the victim in the face and ensure that "all his friends must pay".
The businessman is forced to sit in an Audi which loops in the Paris region for two hours. During the trip, one of the kidnappers hands him a paper indicating that he must buy two million euros in shares of the American company Cassidy Ventures Inc, supposed to mine for gold in Canada. In fact, it is an empty shell, according to the stock market policeman of the United States, created for the sole purpose of committing scams and of which Mimran owns 10% with his ex-partner. The businessman agrees to place this order, but his broker, sensing a dirty trick, refuses to execute it. The fifty-year-old is taken to an apartment in Aubervilliers. While his captors are asleep, he tries to escape. But a noise betrays him and he is again struck and shackled.
The swollen face?
A staging, according to the examining magistrate
The next day around 7 p.m., two other bandits appeared in the company of Mimran, who bore signs of beatings in the face.
The examining magistrate considers that this is a staging organized with Sabir Titouh, known as "Titax", holding organized crime and suspected of having organized this kidnapping with his team on behalf of the swindler to the carbon tax.
According to the prosecution, Arnaud Mimran was in dire straits financially, under the pressure of another figure of organized crime to whom he made buy shares.
He would have imagined this kidnapping to pay off his debts.
Former boxing champion Farid Khider denies his involvement in the kidnapping of the Swiss financier: "I am not Arnaud's muscles (Editor's note: Mimran) and I am not his stooge."
That evening, the victim was forced to place orders to buy shares for $ 2.25 million.
On January 16, she was moved to a second apartment in Aubervilliers.
On January 19, around 10:20 p.m., Titax was wounded by several 7.65 mm caliber bullets, when he had just left his home in Taverny (Val-d'Oise).
He died during his transport to Bichat hospital.
Mimran will be arrested the next morning as part of the investigation into the carbon tax scam, for which he will be sentenced to eight years in prison.
The big guys, deprived of their leader, decide to release the trader.
"At the end, they said to me:
You were programmed to be killed
", he evokes in front of the judge.
"My client is still traumatized"
In the early morning of January 21, 2015, after six days of kidnapping, the 50-year-old was released. His captors drop him off at the RER D station in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. Back in Geneva, he denounces the facts to the Swiss police. He receives calls from Mimran who, from his cell, tries to coax him, in vain. "My client is still traumatized and bitterly regrets having crossed paths with Arnaud Mimran", underlines his lawyer, Me Patrick Jaïs.
On June 16, 2015, the police arrested the six suspects in the Paris region. During the hearings before the police and the examining magistrate, Arnaud Mimran positions himself as a victim and tells that he was overtaken by Titax who would have decided to kidnap the Swiss banker. His lawyer, Me Jean-Marc Fedida, underlines that his client "will be able to provide all the explanations which will allow the jurors of the Assize Court to understand that he neither participated nor wanted the facts which are his. reproached ”. Boxer Farid Khider is suspected of having made the link between Titax's team and Arnaud Mimran, with whom he was very close. But he defends himself by saying: “I am not Arnaud's muscles and I am not his stooge, I am a boxer. The other accused all dispute their participation in this kidnapping.The verdict is expected on June 25.