The Bernard Tapie reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Bernard Tapie

Bernard Tapie (born 1943) is a French businessman, politician and, occasionally, actor, singer, and TV host.

One of Tapie's businesses, a chain of health products stores known as La Vie Claire, sponsored one of the strongest cycling teams of all time. At one time in the mid-1980s, La Vie Claire featured three riders who would win a total of 10 Tours de France between them—Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, and Laurent Fignon.

From 1986 to 1994 he was president of the Olympique de Marseille soccer club, which became Champion of France and won the Champions League. In 1993, the same year that OM won the Champions League, he was accused of fixing the match between his club and the minor club of Valenciennes; the motivation seemed to be that, in this way, he could save his best players for important matches and not waste their energy. His club was stripped of its French league championship, though not of the Champions League title, and suffered a forced relegation to the second division. In 1994, Tapie was put under criminal investigation for complicity of corruption and subornation of witnesses; he squabbled with prosecutor Éric de Montgolfier. In 1995, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Douai to 2 years in prison, including 8 non suspended, and 3 years of deprivation of his civic rights. He was incarcerated for about 6 months in 1997.

Bernard Tapie was also prosecuted for tax fraud.

He starred, together with Fabrice Luchini in Claude Lelouch's 1996 movie Hommes, femmes, mode d'emploi (Men, Women: A User's Manual).

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