The alleged crooks of a bipolar millionaire tried in Paris
It is a case interpreted by improbable characters that the correctional chamber 13.2 of the Paris judicial court must judge from Thursday, January 20. A dramatic story, at the turn of the years 2017 and 2018, with the protagonists a bipolar millionaire, who committed suicide in Etretat (Seine-Maritime), a son of a Congolese diplomat now on the run, a former manager of the icon of reality show Loana and a Parisian lawyer, among others.
In the middle of this galaxy of unusual figures, the headliner of the trial was planned for the Bogdanoff brothers, also suspected of having fooled the millionaire, taking advantage of his largesse and his lack of discernment. Indicted in June 2018 for “vulnerable person fraud”, the twins, television hosts, were among the six defendants uploaded to court. Nothing will happen. On December 28, 2021, Grichka died of Covid-19. Six days later, on January 3, Igor joined him, a victim of the same disease – neither of the two brothers had been vaccinated.
The death of the twins extinguishes the legal proceedings against them. They will therefore remain forever claimed to be innocent, they who had always denied any fraud. They barely recognized themselves“to be guilty of recklessness or negligence”, in a defense document they had drawn up.
A new career as a producer
It all starts at the end of summer 2017, with dreams of grandeur and a film project. At that time, through a mutual friend, Cyrille Pien, 52, met Jean-Luc Chetboun, a Parisian lawyer who loved art. Heir to a family that made a fortune in slaughterhouses in Normandy, Cyrille Pien joined his family in the hotel business. In 2008, he sold his Paris hotel for nearly 4 million euros. He then placed a large part of his funds in term accounts at Crédit Mutuel de Caen.
A success in business against a background of personal setbacks: he cannot recover from the separation from his wife. He misses his daughter. Depressed since the end of his adolescence, Cyrille Pien also benefits from a large disability pension, 48,000 euros per year, for his psychological disorders. Between trips to Tibet or the Dominican Republic, he searches for himself, lives off his income. Sometimes bored, too.
In September 2017, the meeting with Mand Chetboun will change his life. The lawyer tells him about a star hypnotist, Alban de Jong, evokes artistic projects and the production of films; Cyrille Pien is thrilled. He would see himself starting a new career as a producer. This is good because the lawyer knows a director, his “cousin” Alain Williams, who would like to launch a feature film.
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