Paris ‘nightlife king’ fined for bribery

The boss of a Paris firm running some of France's best-known restaurants and nightclubs was fined €150,000 for bribery on Thursday by a criminal court.

Published: 8 February 2024 16:57 CET

Paris 'nightlife king' fined for bribery

Laurent de Gourcuff. Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

Paris Society chief Laurent de Gourcuff, whose company owns restaurant Maxim’s and nightclub Castel among others, is sometimes known as “the king of Paris nightlife”.

On top of the fine, he was banned from running a company for five years and received a two-year suspended prison sentence.

De Gourcuff’s lawyers said he would appeal the conviction for bribery of an executive at the Longchamp racecourse west of the capital, where Paris Society hoped to win concessions including to run the restaurant.

Prosecutors said that during the 2018 bidding process for the 12-year contract, de Gourcuff gained inside information by hosting the marketing and sales director of racecourse management firm France Galop for several meals.

The executive, Fabrice F., also enjoyed a free birthday dinner at one of Paris Society’s restaurants, and was promised a job as operations director at the firm.

He was sentenced to a €30,000 fine and a two-year suspended jail term.

The court case was the result of a criminal complaint from Paris Society’s competitor, Moma Group, which bid unsuccessfully for the racecourse contract.

Prosecutors went ahead with the case even after Moma Group – which runs properties including the Hotel de la Marine on the landmark Place de la Concorde – withdrew its complaint.

They alleged that de Gourcuff and the France Galop executive “willingly overstepped the requirements” of the bidding process, which bar informal contact between the parties.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.