The suspense continues at the trial of ex-franchisee Paul Zaidan, accused of kidnapping Nicholas Tsouflidis, CEO of the breakfast restaurant chain. The jury sequestered since Friday will have to choose between two theories: that of the Crown, to the effect that Zaidan planned and implemented the well-crafted plan to kidnap and sequester Tsouflidis on March 8, 2017, hoping to receive a ransom of 11 M $; or rather that the incredible kidnapping is a set-up orchestrated by the victim herself, as the defense claims. Here are key pieces of evidence that jurors are sure to dwell on.
• Read also: Jury sequestered at trial for kidnapping Cora CEO
• Read also: $11 million ransom would have bounced back, defense says
• Read also: Kidnapping of Cora restaurants CEO was real, Crown says
Some evidence
The ransom letter
When they arrived at Nicholas Tsouflidis’s home while he was still missing, the police found a large envelope on the kitchen counter, in which was a ransom letter.
The kidnappers then demand from the victim’s mother, Cora Tsouflidou, $11 million in three installments.
A bogus letter, according to the defense, which argued that among the instructions, we do not find the beneficiary’s account number and that thus the bank would have eventually returned the funds, without the kidnappers receiving a penny.
Courtesy picture
Phone booth from where the kidnappers allegedly called Cora Tsouflidou to demand an $11 million ransom
Place of sequestration
The police searched for a long time for the place where Nicholas Tsouflidis was sequestered. It was finally a friend of Paul Zaidan who led them to 240 rue Principale, in Laval. Yacin Ben Romdhane had appeared on the police radar more than a year after the kidnapping, because his cell phone and that of the accused were spotted near the victim’s home on the evening of the kidnapping.
The witness admitted to keeping watch near the residence of Nicholas Tsouflidis at the request of the 52-year-old accused. The latter would also have made him visit a house he said he wanted to buy. The police were then able to link the lease of the house to the accused. If it had been rented with an assumed name, that of one of its former employees, it is the telephone number of Paul Zaidan which was registered there. Payment was also made with a bank draft from a company in the accused’s name.
The Volvo rented by the accused
After his abduction, Nicholas Tsouflidis said he was locked in the trunk of a dark-colored Volvo. A few months later, the police seized a brown Volvo car from the Enterprise rental company in Laval.
They even got their hands on the rental contract for the car in the name of Paul Zaidan… abandoned in the glove compartment. The man had rented the vehicle the day before the kidnapping, on March 7, 2017, and returned it two days later, just two hours after Mr. Tsouflidis was found.
Courtesy picture
Location where the victim was found
The defendant’s cellphone
Paul Zaidan would have been betrayed by his cell phone. Using data from the accused’s phone’s incoming and outgoing call log, the cell towers used for these calls were identified. On the day of the crime and weeks before, his phone was located nearby:
- of the house where the chain’s CEO said he was chained and confined on the evening of the kidnapping
- from Best Buy in Laval, where the tablet used to demand the $11 million ransom had been purchased and then returned the day after the crime.
- Subway and Tim Hortons where the accused would have connected to public Internet networks, with this same tablet.
- The day after the abduction, the cell phone number that Paul Zaidan had been using for 12 years was not used again, until it was disconnected two weeks later.
The email that betrayed
“After each transfer, you send the proof to [email protected]”, can we read on the ransom letter seized from the president of Cora restaurants, Nicholas Tsouflidis.
If the investigators were able to trace Paul Zaidan, it was thanks to this same email address. The man would indeed have connected to the public internet networks of Tim Hortons and Subway restaurants using a Samsung tablet. Later, the investigation revealed that the device had been purchased with his credit card.
The tablet returned the next day
The day after the kidnapping, the accused returned the tablet used to make the $11 million ransom demand to Cora Tsouflidou, the founder of the popular breakfast restaurants.
The device had been purchased a month before Nicholas Tsouflidis was kidnapped and sequestered. The Samsung-branded tablet was paid for with Paul Zaidan’s credit card. The Best Buy store had also provided the investigators with screenshots of the video cameras where he can be seen bringing the device.