France's top appeals court has thrown out tycoon and former politician Bernard Tapie's attempt to reverse the quashing of a 404-million-euro award to him in a dispute with the Crédit Lyonnais bank, reports RFI.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is to appeal to the same court on Friday against being sent to trial in connection with the same case.
The Court of Cassation found that there had been a "fraudulent collaboration" between one of the judges who made the 2008 award, Pierre Estroup, and Tapie due to the "long-term, close and repeated" ties between Estroup and Tapie's lawyer Maurice Lantourne.
Tapie's team, appealing against a decision by a lower appeal court, argued that the accusation was "dragged in by its hair for purely political intentions".
The court threw out its claim that the lower court was not competent to judge the affair because it was "international", finding that it only affected operations that had taken place in France.
French finance minister Michel Sapin declared that the verdict "marked a turning point" and vindicated the decision to challenge the original award "in the taxpayers' interest".
In December another court ordered Tapie to pay back the 404 million euros, which he has yet to do, having taken measures to protect his business interests and launched a separate appeal against that judgement.