French businessman, playboy, and high-stakes poker player, Arnaud Mimran, has been sentenced to 13 years prison time for being the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Swiss financier Yomi Rodrig in 2016.
Arnaud Mimran aurait tenté de se suicider après sa condamnation https://t.co/icQDo2nY64
— Le Point (@LePoint) June 26, 2021
The 49-year-old is still in hospital after a suicide attempt following his conviction last Friday. The bizarre story around Mimran also involves murder, extortion, scams, and $multi-million debts to the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.
The Fraud
Mimran was already serving 8 years for a VAT fraud dubbed the “Swindle of the Century” in which €billions of tax money was lost across Europe.
Mimran’s latest conviction came just days before he was due to be released and centered around the kidnapping of 63-year-old Swiss trader Yomi Rodrig.
The Kidnap Scheme
“All of a sudden, the two doors opened. Four people grabbed me in the car and said, ‘French police,” Rodrig told a French court.
He was then warned he would be killed if he didn’t buy $16million in shares within the next 45 minutes.
“Do this and you’ll get out alive in an hour; if not, you’re dead,” Rodrig revealed, adding that his broker rejected the trades, sta9ing: “never in your whole life have you made such a bizarre trade.”
Rodrig was then forced to buy $2.6 million stock in Cassidy Ventures Inc., a shell company set up by Arnaud Mimran.
Murder number 3
Mimran was described in court by prosecutors as the “designer and the conductor” of the plan, which started to fall apart when the man in charge on the ground – Sabir “Titax” Titouh – was murdered the day after the kidnapping.
Rodrig was fortunate to be released from captivity for 6 days, being told “you were programmed to be killed but you’re very lucky.”
The Poker Connection Part 1
Arnaud Mimran was well-known as a highstakes poker player, playing and cashing in the 2006 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final and one of the wealthy businessmen mooted to take part in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop at the WSOP in 2012.
Mimran, the son of Algerian-born fashion mogul Joseph Mimran, eventually didn’t play, losing his $50,000 deposit in the process.
At the time of the kidnapping, the younger Mimran was alleged to have been almost $6million in debt to the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas. He also owed money to friends and having his bank accounts seized over the VAT fraud.
Murders 1 and 2
Mimran was charged earlier this year in connection with the murders of his “Swindle of the Century” accomplice, Samy Souied in 2010, and also the mysterious death of his former father-in-law, Claude Dray, in 2011.
The billionaire art collector was found murdered in his home with no signs of forced entry.
The Poker Connection Part 2
Mimran is also alleged to be behind the attempted murder of Cyril “The Frenchman” Mouly. A highstakes poker player well-known for his appearances on the televised Full Tilt Poker “Million Dollar Cash Game” and from playing the “Big Game” in Bobby’s Room.
Mouly and his chauffeur were attacked by two knife-wielding men after leaving a poker game in April 2014. He survived with minor injuries, but his driver died from multiple stab wounds to his chest and neck. Mouly himself was jailed for his part in multiple fraudulent schemes.
This week’s 13-year sentence completes Mimran’s fall from grace. The socialite who named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among his friends and who hired the likes of Pharrell Williams to perform at his son’s Bar mitzvah now destined for more than a decade in jail.
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