Overview
- The tribunal convicted Jean and Viviane Badache of orchestrating the Apollonia real-estate scheme and imposed €2.5 million fines each plus confiscations totaling about €20 million, including a Cassis villa and a property in Marrakech.
- Judges issued deferred committal orders with provisional enforcement, so the prison sentences and asset seizures proceed even as defense lawyers pursue appeals.
- Fourteen of fifteen defendants and the company Apollonia were found guilty, with prison or suspended terms for commercial agents, two notaries, and a lawyer; the couple’s son received one year in prison under electronic monitoring and a three-year suspended term.
- The court found the fraud relied on stacking multiple mortgages, inflated valuations, and promises tied to LMNP status and early VAT refunds, leaving clients with debts ranging from €800,000 to €4 million across several banks.
- Rulings follow a 2025 trial detailing harm to roughly 750 largely professional investors and losses exceeding €1.2 billion, and they open the way for victim compensation claims after years of investigation and litigation; Apollonia had taken about €115 million in commissions from 2004 to 2009.