Former Adidas owner and scandal-ridden French tycoon Bernard Tapie and his wife were tied with power cords and severely beaten in a violent home burglary, officials say.
Tapie, 78, and wife Dominique Tapie, 70, were asleep at their home in Combs-la-Ville, near Paris, around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, when four men broke in and tied them up, police said, according to AFP.
The suspects hit Tapie in the head with a bat, but he did not want to be hospitalized, the outlet reported.
“My grandfather refused to be taken away,” his grandson Rodolphe Tapie told the outlet. ‘He’s shattered, very tired. He was sitting in a chair when he was hit with a bat. “
His wife – slightly injured from multiple blows to the face – managed to free herself and find safety at a neighbor’s house, where she called the police.
She was hospitalized for a short check-up.
“She is doing well,” the couple’s grandson told AFP.
The burglars pulled Dominique Tapie’s hair “because they wanted to know where the treasure was,” said Mayor Guy Geoffroy of Combs-la-Ville. “But of course there was no treasure, and the fact that they didn’t find one only made the violence worse.”
The suspects eventually ran off with two watches, one of them a Rolex, as well as earrings, bracelets and a ring, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
Bernard Tapie is a former Socialist minister who came from humble beginnings but ended up building a sports and media empire – before running into legal trouble.
He was the majority shareholder of the sportswear brand Adidas, as well as the owner of the Olympique de Marseille football club, which won the French championship during his ownership.
From 1992 to 1993, he was also briefly French Minister of Urban Affairs for François Mitterrand’s government.
But Tapie was subsequently found guilty of corruption, tax fraud and misuse of company resources in several cases. He was behind bars for five months in 1997 and was not allowed to stand in any French election.
After his release, he was active in acting and hosting performances on TV and radio.
In 2012 he became media boss and took over the southern French daily La Provence and other newspapers.
Now he is faces a criminal lawsuit over a fraudulent € 404 million ($ 450 million today) arbitration package in connection with its sale of Adidas in the 1990s.
With pole wires