A new part of the heavy debts to which Bernard Tapie was subject will be able to be mopped up. This Wednesday, July 6, took place in Liège, Belgium, a very special auction: that of the huge villa La Mandala acquired by the businessman in 2011 in the city of Saint-Tropez. The new owner is American and paid the modest sum of 81.2 million euros to afford this little gem of the Côte d’Azur according to information from the daily Var Matin.
The immense property is spread over 500m2 of surface area, right in the middle of a 2 hectare plot with swimming pool and breathtaking view of the Mediterranean Sea. This property, Bernard Tapie had bought it a little over 10 years ago for 48 million euros. The villa had been seized after the fraudulent arbitration case, during which Bernard Tapie had been compensated for 404 million euros. Amount that must now be repaid.
The disappearance of Bernard Tapie automatically attributed his debts (more than 600 million euros) to his last wife Dominique Tapie. The sale of La Mandala, held by the Luxembourg subsidiary of a Belgian company and seized by the Liège court, will therefore make it possible to reimburse part of it and to satisfy the Consortium of Realization, responsible for recovering the 404 million unjustly granted to Bernard Tapie according to the justice which had finally declared him guilty of fraud a few days after his death.
This real estate is not the only one to have vanished from the heritage of the Tapies. That same day, other items were also auctioned at the Richelieu workshop in Paris, including furniture (furniture, curtains, works of art) from the private mansion in the capital where Bernard Tapie and his wife lived. The initial estimate, – 4 million euros – has already been largely exceeded, the objects having been sold at exorbitant prices! Just like this last Parisian residence that they occupied and that the businessman preferred to sell before his death to better ensure the rear of his wife.
Last February, Paris Match revealed that in 2020, the former boss of OM had sold their mansion in the heart of Paris to François Pinault for 80 million euros. A transaction of which Dominique Tapie had apparently not been informed. Housed in an apartment on the left bank thanks to the help of Jean-Louis Borloo, the mother of Sophie Tapie is relearning to live alone but always surrounded by her family in the face of the many hardships she has faced since the disappearance of the man in her life.