Football, justice and banditry: on trial for those who wanted to “break” Jean-Pierre Bernays

The motto of his studies was: “never give up”. The same message in his greeting card: A pit bull bites a scar that someone is trying to rip off. Before his fall in October 2015 and four months of imprisonment, M^e Michel Giliber, one of the judicial administrators from Marseilles, who was valued by the commercial court judges and the prosecutor’s office, had a shop window. The time, which this 70-year-old man bitterly regretted, came before the criminal court, before which he appeared for an incredible story in which football, justice and banditry were mixed.

Five years in prison, including three years suspended, and a €150,000 fine were handed down on Wednesday (March 22) to the former legal assistant, who tried to extort the players’ agent, for complicity and “criminal association”. Next to him is Richard Laban, 78, a former figure in the Marseille environment. A third man, Simon Fedon, the protagonist of this incredible case, died in 2021 after the case was sent for correction.

In July 2014, the commercial court charged M^e Gilbert had to recover 11 million euros from Jean-Pierre Bernays, the amount of damages the former general manager of the Marseille football club denounced in 1998, along with other leaders, including Bernard Tapp, the so-called case

For fifteen years, the predecessors of the court administrator broke their teeth because of the cruel refusal of the agents of these players, still with a thriving business, who were only able to recover 15,000 euros. for that “Laughing at Bernays”, As he says, M.^e Gilbert doubles down on the legal channels of debt collection with a highly unofficial mandate entrusted to his friend Simon Fedon – a five-time convict – who prides himself on knowing the thugs.

“I hold you, you hold me, goat’s belly”

“I asked him to find out about the solvency of Jean-Pierre Bernays, about possible accounts abroad and to show me all my diligence, that’s all.”Michelle Gilbert explained in court. “What do you want, it’s a mistake, it can’t be deleted, it’s an assumption”He moped, lamented that he had it “stupid idea”. But the mission given to Simon Phaedon, supported by Richard Laban, “A man of action who did not look like an interlocutor”, He paused to listen to this role of informant.

Not what investigators found on the audio systems of meetings between the emissary duo and Jean-Pierre Bernays. Michel Gilbert wanted Bernays to sign a deal for two million euros. Simon Fedon added a one million euro payout. But that the administrator ignored, according to his defenders, M^{they are} Philippe Bonfils and Alexandre Mathieu, who offered him as a sacrifice “Rumors and Conspiracies of Simon Phaedon”. They demanded his release.