Pressure is mounting on IMF boss Christine Lagarde following the publication on Wednesday of a court document desribed as "damning" by investigative website Mediapart.

"/> Pressure is mounting on IMF boss Christine Lagarde following the publication on Wednesday of a court document desribed as "damning" by investigative website Mediapart.

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BERNARD TAPIE

‘Scathing’ revelations in Lagarde inquiry

Pressure is mounting on IMF boss Christine Lagarde following the publication on Wednesday of a court document desribed as "damning" by investigative website Mediapart.

'Scathing' revelations in Lagarde inquiry
MEDEF (File)

The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) announced on August 4th that it was launching an inquiry into Lagarde’s role in an arbitration procedure that led to a massive payment to a controversial tycoon in 2008. The CJR investigates suspected wrong-doing by ministers.

The payout from public funds cost a total of €400 million, including a compensation payment of €285 million to Bernard Tapie, a businessman, actor and former Socialist minister who is now a prominent supporter of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tapie was also convicted and jailed in 1997 for match-fixing and has a tax fraud conviction.

Described by the website as a “damning report”, the nine-page document was compiled by the seven judges on the CJR.

It gives a detailed chronology of the events in the case as well as an analysis of why the judges felt an inquiry was necessary.

“The report includes the suspicion that she acted personally with the sole intention of ensuring a large payout to Tapie,” said the website.

The document also criticizes a process that contained “numerous anomalies and irregularities” and says Lagarde appeared to have “given voting instructions to representatives” on a key public body in relation to the payout.

Lagarde took the decision in 2008 when she was France’s finance minister, a role she gave up in July when she replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund.

Such an inquiry can lead to criminal charges which, in this case, would be punishable by up to ten years in prison and a fine of €150,000.

Lagarde has denied any misconduct. Her lawyer, Yves Repiquet, said the case was politically motivated, driven by “suspicion abusively cast on Christine Lagarde by a handful of opposition members of parliament for political ends.”

“I have a perfectly clear conscience,” Lagarde said in June.

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BURGLARY

French tycoon Tapie tied up and beaten in burglary

Former French minister and scandal-ridden tycoon Bernard Tapie, once the owner of Adidas, was attacked along with his wife during a midnight burglary of their home, police said on Sunday.

French tycoon Tapie tied up and beaten in burglary
Police officers cordon off the area near the house of French businessman Bernard Tapie and his wife Dominique Tapie in Combs-la-Ville, southeastern suburbs of Paris. Photo: Stephane DE SAKUTIN / AFP

The couple were asleep when four men broke into the house in Combs-la-Ville near Paris around 00:30am on Sunday, beat them and tied them up with electrical cords before making off with their loot.

Dominique Tapie managed to free herself and made her way to a neighbour’s home, from where she called the police. Slightly injured from several blows to the face, she was taken to hospital for a check-up.

“She is doing well,” Tapie’s grandson Rodolphe Tapie told AFP.

During the burglary the perpetrators “pulled her by the hair because they wanted to know where the treasure was”, the mayor of Combs-La-Ville, Guy Geoffroy, told AFP. “But of course there was no treasure, and the fact that they didn’t find one only made the violence worse.”

READ ALSO: Paris museum to be renamed for ex French president

Jewellery and a Rolex

Tapie himself, who is 78, received a blow to the head with a club, prosecutor Beatrice Angelelli told AFP, but he declined to be taken into medical care.

“My grandfather refused to be taken away,” Rodolphe Tapie said. “He is shattered, very tired. He was sitting on a chair when he was hit with a club.”

The burglars broke into Tapie’s home, a vast estate known as the “Moulin de Breuil”, through a first-floor window, undetected by the guards.

They made off with two watches, including a Rolex, earrings, bracelets and a ring, according to a source close to the investigation.

Tapie was a Socialist minister who rose from humble beginnings to build a sporting and media empire, but later ran into a string of legal problems.

He made a fortune in the early part of his career by taking over failing companies in corporate raids, stripping them of their assets and selling them for profit during the high-rolling years of financial deregulation in France.

He often flaunted his wealth, including by buying a 72-metre yacht and a football club, Olympique de Marseille, which won the French championship while he was their owner.

He has also been under suspicion of match-fixing in France’s top football league.

He was briefly Minister for Urban Affairs in François Mitterrand’s government in 1992.

Many legal troubles

Tapie was found guilty in a series of cases for corruption, tax fraud and misuse of corporate assets, went to prison for five months and was stripped of the right to stand in any election in France.

After his release from prison in 1997, Tapie added showbiz to his various activities, trying his hand at acting, singing and hosting radio and TV shows.

In 2012, he also became a media boss, taking over southern French daily La Provence and other newspapers.

One fraud case has dogged Tapie for decades, involving a hugely controversial settlement worth 400 million euros ($470 million at current rates) awarded to him by a government arbitration panel, the size of which sent shockwaves through France.

READ ALSO: French tycoon Bernard Tapie’s assets frozen in fraud case

The panel judged he had been the victim of fraud when he sold his stake in the Adidas sports apparel company in 1993 to state-run French bank Crédit Lyonnais, which was found to have undervalued the sportswear brand.

‘Determined’ to stand trial

The case also ensnared then-Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who now runs the European Central Bank. She was found guilty of “negligence”.

Lagarde’s handling of the case sparked suspicion that her former boss Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Tapie had backed for president in 2007, was favourably disposed towards the businessman – allegations Sarkozy has vehemently denied.

Last autumn, Tapie’s fraud trial was postponed for reasons of ill health because he was suffering a double stomach cancer and cancer of the oesophagus which were getting worse.

The trial is due to resume in May, with Tapie “determined” to be present, according to his lawyer.

Police are treating Sunday’s incident as a violent robbery and kidnapping, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

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