Marseille: French business fashion and former Bernard Tapi politician, whose career greater than life is marked by a series of legal issues, has died at the age of 78 after a four-year battle with cancer, his family said in a statement.
“Dominique Tapi and his family had a great sadness to announce his husband’s death and their father, Bernard Petare, this Sunday,” they said in a statement to the La Provence newspaper in Marseille, where Tamie was a majority stakeholder.
One of his sons, Stephane Petare, confirmed his death with the position of “goodbye my Phoenix” on Instagram.
“He went peacefully, surrounded by his wife, his children and grandchildren, who were beside his bed,” said the statement, adding that he wanted to be buried in Marseille, “his heart city.” But it rose from a simple start in the coarse corner of Paris to become one of the most successful and famous businessmen in France, showing off its wealth with American style talent.
He was the old chairman of the Marseille football club, bought a cycling team and also found time to act, took a role that included police inspectors on popular TV shows.
Tapie also tried in politics, being an urban minister of urban in the socialist government of Francois Mitterrand in the 1990s and then the Parliament of the French and European Parliament.
But the empire collapsed spectacularly in the late 1990s, starting with the trial fixing the match that saw it serving time in prison.
He then faced prosecution of his purchase from the German Sports brand Adidas in 1990, which he was forced to sell only a few years later to Lyonnais’s state-owned bank credit.
The court found him guilty of fraud on the settlement of arbitration with the bank – he claimed that he was cheated by the selling price – and the appellate court would publish his decision on Wednesday.