After three years of investigation, a Parisian examining magistrate ordered a “vulnerable person fraud” trial against the twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff and four other people.
“Everyone had obviously found in this man the goose that lays the golden eggs able to provide them with funds under the guise of totally or partially chimerical projects”, concludes the magistrate in his decree of December 17, consulted by AFP on Wednesday January 6.
Cyrille P., a 53-year-old hotelier who has been ill for several years, had committed suicide during the investigation, on August 31, 2018, from the cliffs of Etretat (Seine-Maritime).
“A real plot”
Two months earlier, Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, whom he nicknamed Brother First and Brother Absent, had been indicted in this case.
The twins, known for their atypical physical transformation and their controversial scientific works, dispute any scam and implicate a former relative, a son of a Franco-Congolese diplomat nicknamed Dark Brother, also referred to court.
The judge considers that Cyrille P. was the victim of a “Real scheme” of the trio, who made him “To dangle extraordinary investments” : an inconsistent attempt to revive Time X, a vague promotional film project from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the purchase of a Gazelle helicopter, which can only be piloted by Igor.
The latter, in financial difficulties, had also convinced Cyrille P. to buy him for € 750,000 half of his Parisian villa, undividedly and without being able to move there.
At the time, Cyrille P. agreed to everything, gave 160,000 € in cash and signed checks for 1.5 million euros during the winter of 2017-2018.
But the bank, which has just reported to justice a first circle of potential profiteers, blocks the payments.
The brothers defend themselves from any personal enrichment
This other circle, which includes a lawyer, a producer and his daughter, is also referred to court, accused mainly of having abused Cyrille P. so that he squanders his fortune in the production of a film, entitled the Fruit of Hope.
For them, however, the prosecution had requested to drop the proceedings, since the film, under questionable production conditions, had actually been produced and broadcast. The Bogdanoff brothers completed the cast.
Contesting this referral, “The Bogdanoff brothers rejoice” however “That the qualification of abuse of weakness against their friend has finally been abandoned”. “They have in fact not benefited from any personal enrichment”, reacted their lawyers Mes Edouard de Lamaze and Éric Morain.
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