Overview

• The 30-year-old faces a charge of abus de confiance, which carries a potential five-year prison term and a €375,000 fine.
• Investigators say roughly €250,000 was raised for children in Madagascar with only about €69,000 delivered, with funds routed to a Lithuanian account and spent on luxury cars and rent for a Dubai apartment.
• His former agent and the vice-president of the association Pour nos enfants are also before the court, with defendants assigning blame to one another.
• Lawyers for donors cite around 7,000 contributors and call for an "exemplary" conviction to deter deceptive crowdfunding.
• Thiry, a reality TV alumnus with more than 2 million Instagram followers, has faced prior controversies and the charity he created was dissolved in 2022 without a published financial report.