More than two thousand miles from Israel, the name of that country's current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been bandied around in a rather curious setting: a French prison cell. More precisely, his name has been mentioned in the jail at Le Havre in northern France where a friend of the head of the Israeli government, businessman Arnaud Mimran, is serving two prison terms.
The businessman is behind bars following two major convictions: he was sentenced at first instance and then on appeal to eight years' imprisonment over a massive fraud in carbon permit trading also known as the 'fraud of the century'; he was sentenced at first instance and then on appeal to thirteen years for kidnapping, unlawful detention and the extortion of money in a case involving a Turkish-Swiss financier; and finally he is also on remand while being investigated over claims he ordered three murders. These accusations include the deaths of a former accomplice in the carbon trade scam, and his former father-in-law and billionaire Claude Dray: he denies all the murder claims and benefits from the presumption of innocence in relation to them.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
The close friendship and in particular the hidden links between Benjamin Netanyahu and Arnaud Mimran were widely talked about in 2016 after a series of joint revelations by Mediapart and the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, which revealed the financing and all-round generosity of the latter in relation to the former.
These links centred on payments of money and all-expenses paid trips to Paris, Monaco and the French ski resort of Courchevel at the start of the 2000s, as shown by photographs taken during that period. At that time Arnaud Mimran, the son of a former number three at the giant construction group Vinci who was convicted of corruption, was a flamboyant golden boy of unflagging charm, even though he was already suspected of various acts of insider dealing and was on the radar of the tax authorities.
This financial relationship was at first strenuously denied by Benjamin Netanyahu – known as 'Bibi' in Israel – then subsequently acknowledged in a series of explanations that were as contradictory as they were embarrassing.
The link between Mimran and Netanyahu continued. Some sources told Mediapart that the 'crook of the century' celebrated Benjamin Netanyahu's election win in 2009 in a close-knit gathering at an hotel in Tel Aviv. An analysis of Mimran's trips to Israel confirmed his presence there at this time, a period which also corresponded with the culmination of the carbon trading fraud, part of which was carried out from Israel. Alerted to a case of possible suspect election financing, the Israeli legal authorities announced they were looking at the case, before subsequently abandoning any notion of an in-depth investigation.
The criminal and the prime minister
But that is not necessarily the end of the story. For Arnaud Mimran has been getting bored in prison. He has been talking a great deal, on the phone in particular, and with all kinds of people. And police officers from the crime squad in Paris have not missed a word. In fact, as permitted by law, his cell and the visitor rooms he uses were fitted with listening devices in 2019 and 2020 at the request of judges investigating the murders of which he is now suspected. The bugging devices were discreetly put in place while he was absent from those areas.
The contents of these recordings, which now form part of the investigation, and which have been seen by Mediapart, not only confirm what has already been written about the Mimran/Netanyahu relationship, they shed further light on the exact nature of the worrying link between the imprisoned criminal and the most powerful political figure in Israel.
In a recording dated July 17th 2020, Arnaud Mimran was talking to his girlfriend and went over the list of all the places where he says he footed the bill for all-expenses trips for Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara: Saint-Tropez, Miami, Deauville, Monaco and the French ski resort of Courcheval, plus stays at the Plaza Athénée hotel in Paris when the couple were not staying at Mimran's place on Avenue Victor-Hugo in the capital's 16th arrondissement. “I paid for everything, he didn't pay,” Arnaud Mimran tells her.
He then told a minor but illuminating story, claiming that he once had to settle a bill for 2,600 euros for additional items at the Plaza. Part of this sum was due to the large number of breakfasts enjoyed by the Netanyahus during what was just a three-day stay. Mimran explained why. “She [editor's note, Sara Netanyahu] adores drinking orange juice. In the morning, for example, she'd have an orange juice, then she ordered another but each time she ordered a breakfast, she didn't order an orange juice. She couldn't have cared less.” Sara Netanyahu has already been convicted in Israel of unlawfully misusing thousands of pounds of public funds on lavish meals.
From the prison Arnaud Mimran also spoke of Benjamin Netanyahu's passion for fish Colbert at Fouquet's brasserie in Paris, for cigars and for Panerai watches. “I had bought one for myself. He liked it. So I bought him a Panerai,” said the businessman. “He loved presents,” continued Mimran, who added: “Politicians are freeloaders.”
I gave a million to Netanyahu.
Arnaud Mimran also described how he used Benjamin Netanyahu – then at the height of his power – and the many dinners he arranged with him to boost his own business affairs and to show off the scale of his network. “When I needed to work with someone I invited them to dine with Bibi. I arranged a dinner every evening in Monaco, each evening I invited the person whom I wanted as a contact,” the businessman declared. The convicted fraudster confessed: “All the guys in finance, the Jews I wanted to work with, bingo! … They saw me at my best.”
He continued: “When he was with me in Paris I took him where I wanted. He did what I wanted.” Mimran then related this embarrassing secret: “When he accepts cash and everything from you that's it, it's over, there are no more boundaries. You can ask anything of him.” Arnaud Mimran even talked about specific sums, sometimes 10,000 euros, sometimes 20,000 euros, depending on the occasion. “He knew that he was going to get his banknotes … whatever it was, he said yes to me.”
Georgian businessman
Speaking about a more significant level of money, in a recording dated August 10th 2020 Arnaud Mimran still insisted that he had “given a million to Netanyahu” via wealthy Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsichvili, who later died in 2008. “I said to Bibi 'I've found a guy who'll finance you',” recalled Mimran, who did not say in what form and on what date the payment took place. But he did provide this detail: “He asked me for 50,000 in dollars, he paid for his holiday, at the end he told me it was good, there was nothing left.”
There is no doubting that the convicted criminal had a connection to the wealthy Georgian. An old friend of Mimran, who was questioned in January 2022 as part of the investigation into the murder allegations, told the judges that Badri Patarkatsichvili was one of the “Russians with whom Arnaud mixed”. The witness said: “We played poker with Badri and he lost all the time … the Russians invited us on their boats. It was crazy stuff.” The witness added that Mimran “dreamt of living with the gangsters”. When questioned Arnaud Mimran himself acknowledged that he had met Badri Patarkatsichvili, in particular at a casino on Saint-Martin in the Caribbean.
In a report dated March 2021 officers from the Paris crime squad also revealed that in a conversation recorded in November 2020 “Arnaud Mimran explained … that he had a powerful network of connections that consisted in particular of Meyer Habib [editor's note, a French Member of Parliament] and Benjamin Netanyahu. He took pride in the fact that he had succeeded, via this network of connections, in sabotaging the telecommunications deal in Israel” of one of his “enemies” from France. “He went on to say how he wouldn't hesitate to use the services of 'major gangsters' to put pressure on his 'enemies',” the detectives noted.
When approached, the Israeli prime minister's communications team did not respond to Mediapart's questions about Arnaud Mimran's statements.
An MP friend
In prison the former golden boy was also particularly talkative about another politician, in this case French: the MP Meyer Habib. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 2013 representing French citizens abroad, in particular in Israel and Italy. The MP is also a close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu whom in the past he has said he looks upon as a “brother”.
In a series of eavesdropped recordings made between June and October 2019 Arnaud Mimran told one person on the phone that he was very aware that “well-known people” around him were now “afraid to be associated” with him. At the top of this list was Meyer Habib, he said. “He's now playing the shocked guy routine,” complained Mimran in one recording. In another he said bitterly: “At a certain point Meyer wanted to distance himself.”
It's thanks to me that he was elected as an MP, I financed it all for him.
He was also quick to recall the past favours that he had done for the Parliamentarian. “For twenty years I've helped him earn money. He used to stay with me during holidays, at Courchevel, at Fisher [editor's note, in the United States], I invited him everywhere for twenty years, then he wants to put on airs,” Mimran explained to the woman he was talking to on the phone.
The businessman seemed to be in a talkative mood on the issue. “It's thanks to me that he was elected as an MP, I financed it all for him,” he continued. “It was me who funded all the dinners that he had, I funded all of it for him,” Mimran added, saying he had even “done deals with him”.
“He wanted to suggest that he wasn't aware of the CO2 [editor's note, the carbon trading scam], he was afraid … though he knew all about it, I told Meyer everything,” said the convicted fraudster.
Amraud Mimran said he recalled Meyer Habib approaching him after the revelations by Mediapart and Haaretz about Netanyahu. He said the MP had warned him that he might damage the Israeli leader. “He told me: 'Arnaud, be careful that you don't get manipulated, perhaps you're not doing it on purpose, you're harming Netanyahu'. I told him: 'So you think that if I want to harm Netanyahu or you, I don't have the necessary information, are you daring me?” threatened Mimran according to the recording. “That left me very upset,” he confessed from his cell. He then admitted: “I would never hurt Bibi … I'm not going to harm a friend for my own interests, that's the beginning of the end.” He insisted: “I'm trustworthy.”
Mimran also talked about a house in the resort town of Eilat in Israel which he said had been “bought with Meyer Habib”. The businessman said: “He said to me: 'Shall we buy it together?' I said OK but I've never set foot there.” He said it was a house set over two floors. “Meyer Habib was on the ground floor. And I was on the first floor with the swimming pool on the roof. His pool was in the garden.”
An analysis of Arnaud Mimran's banking activity carried out at the time of the carbon trading fraud shows that the fraudster had used a personal account opened at the Safra National Bank in New York, from which on February 23rd 2010 a transfer of 180,000 euros was made to an Israeli account opened in the name of a notary's office. Moreover, the transfer was accompanied by the words “advance on the purchase of a property”. But at the time Mimran had insisted to detectives that he could not remember to whom this property was supposed to be assigned.
Less than a month later, while he was staying in Israel, Mimran had transferred a million euros from the same Safra Bank account to someone called David Cohen via the Israel Discount Bank in the town of Eilat. Mimran told detectives that this man was an estate agent and that he had given money with a view to buying a property for someone whose name he no longer remembered.
Piece of evidence
When contacted by Mediapart Meyer Habin declared: “Peddling accusations based on the bugging of a prisoner in distress, who's accused of murder, who knows he's being listened to, that's not good journalism! Clearly these claims are completely false! Using them and broadcasting them is libellous and ill-intentioned,” the MP said, without even agreeing to look at the detailed questions that Mediapart wanted to ask him.
Questioned as a witness in March 2021 by the judges in charge of investigating the murders – the MP gave Arnaud Mimran a ring that became a piece of evidence in one of the crimes – Meyer Habib had said at that time: “We had a friendly relationship.” He then spoke of Mimran as an “appealing, intelligent and talented boy”. The MP said: “He's very bright. I know that he had problems but this seems crazy to me.” The politician had insisted that he knew “nothing” about the carbon trading affair, thus contradicting his “friend”.
Meyer Habib also said that in the past his mother had handed over part of her assets to be managed by Arnaud Mimran through a listed company which he ran, 3A Trade. “Arnaud is a friend but we don't have the same kind of life,” insisted the MP, who said that he had gone on holiday with his friend, in particular to Courcheval. “I saw him a bit less in recent years. I've never been angry with him. When he came out of prison once I had to see him,” Meyer Habib acknowledged.
When contacted by Mediapart, Arnaud Mimran's lawyer, Hugues Vigier, declined to comment.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter
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