httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfw4Y6Z-UcI
After threatening Kardashian – who was in Paris for the October Fashion Week – at gunpoint and tying her up, the thieves slipped away with jewels valued at more than $11 million, including the $4 million Lorraine Schwartz diamond engagement ring given her by her rapper husband Kanye West and likely forever lost, like the rest.
His record includes convictions for aggravated theft and drug trafficking, and the Paris public prosecutor has indicted him for robbery with an organized gang, kidnapping or forcible confinement and criminal activity.
“On that day, in Paris, they are more than satisfied, they are gay: They have managed a coup of €9 million, the biggest robbery of the last 20 years, the most flamboyant, and probably their last of their long careers as outlaws. Around the table, they think they have secured a comfortable retreat. Now it remains only to share the money. Everyone has had his role, everyone will have his share”.
Beyond the traumatizing experience suffered by the ubiquitous TV star, the enormous value of the robbery – a record for that kind of crime – and the almost cinematic quality of the band of aging bandits, the apparently amateurish heist has slammed the image of Paris and badly affected the tourist industry, particularly among the rich and famous.
A headline in the weekly news magazine Le Point made the point: “Paris ‘no go zone’ après l’affaire Kardashian, Londres nouvelle reine du shopping,” in an article specifically about the losses to the tourist industry, especially among “Serial luxury shoppers” who now prefer London over Paris.
Paris hotels were already reeling, losing more than one million tourist visitors in 2016 as it struggles to recover from last year’s terrorist attacks.
“The assault on the American reality television star completed the image of Paris as for the richest visitors,” Le Point noted.