18h28 – Bernard Tapie wins a new respite for reimbursement of Adidas arbitration

Bernard Tapie welcomed Thursday the rejection of the application for liquidation of its companies, but must still fight to validate a delicate plan to repay the millions received in 2008 in the arbitration of its dispute with Credit Lyonnais, (19659002) The Commercial Court of Paris on Thursday rejected the request made by the prosecutor, who wanted to see the plan for the safeguarding of holdings GBT (Bernard Tapie Group), owner of the media group La Provence , and FIBT (Financière Immobilière Bernard Tapie), converted into an immediate liquidation in order to honor his colossal debt.

The former boss of Olympique de Marseille, weakened at age 75 by a cancer of the stomach , was indeed finally condemned last year to repay the State the 404 million received at the arbitration supposed to put an end to his standoff with the Credit Lyonnais on the resale of Adidas in 19 94.

But the former minister had previously placed his companies in safeguard proceedings, avoiding any seizure of his property.

A part is already unavailable, since seized in the criminal part of this sprawling file, which is worth to Bernard Tapie to be fired for "fraud" and "misappropriation of public funds"

The trial in Paris, whose date has not yet been set, is to be held in spring 2019, according to a source close

For the first time, the public prosecutor applied for this liquidation on the basis of the cancellation, in April, of Bernard Tapie's initial six-year repayment plan.

The Court of Appeal had invalidated this plan by denouncing a "lack of funding", the procedure "not providing any transfer of badets" likely to provide liquidity.

Thursday, the court did not rule on the new project presented by Bernard Tapie which will be examined in the autumn, but limited himself to finding "that the state of cessation of payments is not demonstrated" for his companies.

The court holds that the rejection of the initial plan, which he had itself approved in June 2017, "does not terminate the safeguard procedure and, as a result, debts incurred prior to the initiation of proceedings are frozen as long as the proceedings continue", according to the decision consulted by the AFP

– "It has saved time" –

"I am extremely happy for at least three reasons," said Mr. Tapie to AFP. "The first is that, even when the situation incites justice to be unfavorable to you, you always fall, at one time or another, on magistrates who are concerned only with respecting the law. the law "

" Whatever the sum in the end to be reimbursed, I have put in place incontestable guarantees, which allow to go to the end of this repayment ", he added.

"And most of all, I'm so happy about La Provence", who "does an incredible job and can continue to work in serenity", he was still happy.

"The situation of Bernard Tapie has not moved: it has gained time but no new means of payment ", reacted the CDR (Consortium of realization), the entity in charge of managing the liabilities of Crédit Lyonnais and of which the State is the only one shareholder.

"Its companies are in an objective situation such that there is no possibility of presenting a new pla a credible safeguard, "he added. "The liquidation is inevitable and unavoidable, it is only a question of time," according to the CDR.

The amount that Bernard Tapie will actually pay is also the subject of a judicial trial: the CDR, which estimates it should receive the 404 million euros plus the interest generated until the end of 2015, launched an appeal against a decision that has scaled its claim of 117 million euros.

The judgment of the court of June 2017, having approved the initial plan, has also been the subject of criminal proceedings since the opening of a judicial investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office for "fraud".