Latest developments in the ongoing bitter legal battle surrounding the divorce between Paris-based arms dealer Ziad Takieddine and his British former wife Nicola Johnson offer new revelations about the opulent lifestyle of the man who has become the central figure in the French political corruption scandal known as the Karachi Affair.
Bailiffs acting for Johnson, and under police escort, last month searched Takieddine’s Paris penthouse and Riviera villa where they placed dozens of objects under seal, including precious artworks, a collection of prestigious fine wines, antique furniture, decorative objects and several vehicles.
Takieddine, 61, was last September placed under investigation – one step short of being charged – by French judges investigating suspected illegal political financing through cash sums siphoned off from official French weapons sales abroad. The Lebanese-born businessman acted as a key intermediary in deals with Pakistan, for the sale of three Agosta-class attack submarines, and Saudi Arabia, for the sale of three La Fayette-class frigates.
Takieddine and his associates were promised the equivalent of 33 million euros in secret commissions for the Pakistan deal, and 213 million euros for the frigates sale to Saudi Arabia.
The 1994 contracts are suspected of providing funds, through commission payments re-routed to France via complex financial routes, for the 1995 presidential election bid of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, a political mentor for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who at the time of the deals served as Balladur’s budget minister and who became, in 1995, Balladur’s campaign spokesman.
Takieddine again became a key intermediary in a series of arms sales brokered by Sarkozy’s inner political cabinet, beginning in 2002 when Sarkozy was interior minister, and up until 2009, two years into Sarkozy’s presidency (see a list of links to Mediapart’s exclusive investigations into Takieddine’s activities on page 2).
Johnson’s move came after Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, one of two magistrates in charge of investigating the political corruption scam, placed a seizure order on Takieddine’s Paris apartment and Riviera villa, as well as his luxury motor yacht, La Diva, effectively freezing any future sale of the possessions.
Johnson, 50, and Takieddine were divorced in France last September 15th, in a settlement at the Paris appeals court which ordered Takieddine to hand over to his former wife 3 million euros of her share in their combined wealth, and to pay a monthly contribution of 2,000 euros in maintenance costs for their under-age son who lives with Johnson in London. Takieddine immediately lodged an appeal against the financial awards, a move which, under French law, suspends the payments pending the outcome of his challenge.
However, Johnson’s lawyers, William Bourdon and Apolline Cagnat, successfully argued before magistrates that there was in the meantime a threat of “dilapidation of commonly-owned assets”, and established an inventory of the arms dealer’s possessions to be placed under seal and frozen by bailiffs.
Takieddine, the lawyers pleaded, was “known worldwide for the opaque nature of his business dealings” and had hidden from the French tax authorities both his income and his wealth. His France-based wealth is estimated to total more than 40 million euros, reaching 100 million euros worldwide. “Madame Johnson has been able to establish that [Takieddine] has already parted with some of their [joint] assets, and was about to sell others,” Bourdon and Cagnat argued.
Johnson has also launched legal action in France against Takieddine for “abandoning family” over his alleged non-payment during a period of 19 months of “alimony and maintenance allowances”, totaling 51,313 euros.
Jaguars and Bentley bolted
The bailiffs, escorted by police, arrived unannounced at Takieddine’s luxurious 600-square-metre apartment on the Avenue Georges-Mandel in Paris’ plush 16th arrondissement on January 18th. They placed under seal a list of relatively common items including sofas, chairs, tables, television sets, computers, tableware and a clothes-drying machine, but also antique furniture and artworks, including an original canvas by celebrated British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (one of whose works sold for 259,000 euros at an auction in London last month).
They also sealed the contents of Takieddine’s wine cellar, which includes an exceptional collection of Château Margaux 1996, Château Lafite 1988, Château Mouton Rothschild 1970 and Château Petrus 1988. Takieddine’s top-of-the-range Mercedes S600 was also put under seal.
On January 31st, the bailiffs targeted Takieddine’s Riviera villa, at Cap d’Antibes, where he and his former wife hosted high-ranking French politicians close to Nicolas Sarkozy, including Jean-François Copé, former budget minister and now head of France’s ruling UMP party, and former interior minister, now UMP advisor, Brice Hortefeux.
There they placed under seal a number of artworks, including lithographs by Salvador Dali, Bernard Cathelin and Sonia Delaunay, and paintings and sculptures by Arman, including his bronze works Vénus au violon and Le Gladiateur Borghese.
They also sealed antique furniture and decorative items - including an 18th-century console table, a 19th-century Louis-Philippe-era bed, precious Daum and De Langeais vases – along with a collection of wines similar to those found at Takieddine’s Paris apartment. In all, more than 1,000 bottles from both of the properties were placed under wraps.
As were also a Land Rover and Mercedes, although Takieddine’s trio of classic cars that had long been kept in the garage of the villa - two Jaguars dating from 1955 and 1962 and a Bentley Continental - had disappeared before the arrival of the bailiffs.
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For more about Ziad Takieddine, and the political funding scandal behind the Karachi Affair, click on the links to Mediapart's investigations below:
The Sarkozy aide and his secretly-funded Colombian mansion
Exclusive: British witness in French funding scandal hits back at ‘protected’ arms dealer
The arms dealer and his 'friendly' services for UMP leader Copé
Judges step up hunt for the phantom figure behind the Karachi Affair
French IT group Bull horned by libyan internet espionage deal
French judge finds key evidence in illegal funding probe
British divorcee becomes key witness in French political funding scandal
Net closes in on French presidency after funding 'scam' arrests
Arms dealer probe brings illegal funding scandal closer to Sarkozy
The British thriller writer caught in the plot of the Karachi affair
The secret financier who brings danger to the Sarkozy clan
Sarkozy, the arms dealer, and a secret 350 million-euro commission
The well-connected arms dealer and his tax returns
How Sarkozy aides saved arms dealer from paradise island 'death blow'
Exclusive: how Sarkozy's team sought grace for Gaddafi's murderous henchman
The arms dealer and his Paris party for the glitterati
Exlusive: how President Sarkozy's team dealt with Gaddafi
When Total paid the bill for the Elysée's secret emissary
How French intelligence shields the Sarkozy clan's unofficial emissary
Divorce court freezes arms broker's assets
The French-built stealth offroader that may be hiding Gaddafi
A Q&A guide to the Karachi affair
How the Karachi affair caught up with Nicolas Sarkozy
Senior French defence chief told of former PM's 'kickback scam
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English version: Graham Tearse