from the success story to the prison box, the fall of a media boss in Marseille
Tamer Shabana is at the head of Nour d’Egypte, a galaxy of trendy addresses in downtown Marseille. The entrepreneur was placed in pre-trial detention, indicted for several counts including money laundering and concealed work. All in “organized band”.
The address is well known to gourmets who frequent the city center of Marseille. The canteen of nour D’Egyptian is a restaurant whose dishes are regularly shared on Instagram, the favorite network for foodies.
We run there to taste the plates of mezze or feetirsprinkled with lemonade or karkadea traditional Egyptian drink. Every Sunday, customers jostle in front of the establishment, hoping to get a table to enjoy a Middle Eastern brunch.
But on May 17, the gourmands could not settle on the roof terrace comfortably furnished on the roof of a small building, close to the Canebiere. The curtain of “the canteen of nour D’Egyptian” remained closed all day.
This that daythe owner of the restaurant as well as son associate and father-in-law Jean-Claude Amar are in police custody at the premises of the Marseille Interministerial Research Group (GIR), a service specializing in financial crime.
The police have been investigating for many months the affairs of the duo, managers of the restaurant, but also a bakery, a sandwich shop, a renovation company and a “concept store” in downtown Marseille.
Following from their police custody, the two men are indicted for concealed work, money laundering, employment of a foreigner without title and assistance with irregular stay. All in “organized band” specifies the prosecutor of the Republic. Jeans-Claudius Amar is placed under judicial supervision. Amount a Tamer Shabana, he is remanded in custody.
An entrepreneur struggling with the law, we are far from the image that Tamer Shabana a counterfeiter knew himself. That of a Iegyptian migratedI, a 45 years old, through hard work and ingenuity, has come to the head of four addresses dedicated to gastronomy and to the Egyptian culture. He claims 50 employees in the city center of Marseille.
Since its opening in the fall of 2020, the Souk, the last born of the group nour D’Egyptian has become a place of reference in travel guides. During the inauguration, Tamer Shabana and her company Agnès Shabana explain to the press that they have invested 900,000 euros in equity for the renovation of this emblematic premises of the downtown. It once housed the store Tatiuntil a fire that forced the brand to close shop in 2014.
Justice is particularly interested in the financial management of the four establishments of the group nour D’Egyptian. In 2019, a firm of chartered accountants mandated by Tamer Shabana to establish the accounts of the Canteen of nour D’Egyptian considers not to be “able to certify the consistency and plausibility of the annual accounts”.
On the side of wages too, on tip the opacity of revenue management. “We had no box cash register for meals”assures a former employee.
Service revenue circulates in envelopes fulfilled of cash. On each revenue details are reported. A part is indicated as “uncashed”. The sum sometimes represents several hundred euros per day.
“There was a lot of cash circulating”, confirms a former employee. Part of the wages are also paid “under the table”. According to our witnesses, Tamer Shabana is used to offering half-time contracts, supplemented by a few tickets from hand to hand, when he is not suggesting that the supplement be provided by a job center allowance or aid such as job bonus.
All the employees we contacted report unpaid overtime, but also difficulty in receiving wages. “There was regularly two months late”says Sarah*, a former employee of the Cantine de Nour and the Balady bakery, the bakery opened in 2018.
She now estimates that her former boss still owes her more than 5,000 euros. “I gave up touching them one day”says the young woman who for a time submitted a procedure to the industrial tribunal.
Some don’t even get paid at all. Karim* was recruited in September 2019 via an advertisement from Pôle Emploi to work at the Souk. He discovers on his first day of work that no contract or remuneration is provided.
“Shabana tells me that he doesn’t know when the souk will open, that he can’t afford to pay me. He offers me 600 euros a month, hand in hand”. Karim has never moonlighted. But he accepts. “I have my RSA on the side and I really like the project”. So he gets down to his job, full time. Hoping for a real job when the Souk opens.
After a month, the pay promises does not arrive. “And there I start to hear others complaining that they are not being paid. One day his boss complains about an employee, who no longer shows up at his place of work. “I point out to him that it is normal, since we are not paid”.
But Tamer Shabana does not intend to pay his due to Karim. “He told me that I had agreed to help him for free.” Following this exchange, Karim was summoned a few days later by his boss. “He criticizes me for having discounts in front of everyone, and pretends to be something he is not. He told me “take your money and get out””.
In 2018, theUrssaf had already pinned the Canteen of nour D’Egyptian for concealed use. The slate then amounted to 22,461 euros of adjustment for dues unpaid social. Three people, all Egyptians, had been hired Going through an agreement for an introductory course in Egyptian culinary culture.
At the time of the inspectors’ visit, the three men were “in a working situation in the restaurant kitchen”, according to a letter from Urssaf sent to the Nour restaurant in Egypt that we were able to consult.
Among the obligations of trainees, availability at night, weekends and holidays. “The contributor cannot sufficiently maintain that this is a culinary course of initiation to Egyptian culture”, notes Urssaf.
Justice is also interested in the employment of undocumented people in the various establishments of Tamer Shabana. Former employees confirm their presence in the teams.
They would be paid from hand to hand, a derisory salary. “They are strangers, they will not say anything”would have answered Jean-Claude Amar to a former employee who was surprised at the situation.
In 2015, Tamer Shabana allegedly brought four young men from Egypt, nicknamed the “chebabs” by the rest of the team. According to our information, they were staying in an apartment belonging to Jean-Claude Amar.
When they are not working, their leisure is controlled by their boss. “He would take them to the cinema himself to see cartoons and he would pressure them to pray on Fridays.recalls Saaid*, a former employee of the Canteen. One day I went with them to the beach. Tamer Shabana accused me of taking them ‘to see naked women'”.
According to our witnesses, Tamer Shabana is indeed trying to impose his conservative Muslim values on his employees. “He made women wear pants in the summer, despite the heat.” Sarah recalls.
Tamer Shabana is described by former employees as a “guru”, a “limitless” man. “He takes advantage of people’s weakness for the exploiters”, says Saaid, originally from Egypt. “I had just arrived in France, I didn’t know how it worked, that’s why I accepted a miserable salary.”
According to our information, a former associate of Tamer Shabana has filed a complaint for fraud. He is claiming several thousand euros which have not been paid for the renovation works of the Souk.
The police would also look into the attack on a former employee in front of the premises of the souk by a group of men. According to the complaint, which we were able to consult, the victim named Tamer Shabana as one of the attackers. One of them was reportedly stabbed. The victim, protected by his backpack, managed to flee and take refuge in a nearby business.
All these elements do not appear in the indictment of Tamer Shabana. The list of charges against the contractor could therefore grow as the investigation progresses.
Reached by telephone, Tamer Shabana’s lawyer did not wish to comment on the case for the moment.
*Names have been changed