The morning following the daring heist, Yunice Abbas, the seasoned burglar, retreated to the sanctity of his home to indulge in much-needed slumber. Upon awakening, his wife was enraptured by the television screen, her eyes glued to a gripping headline: Kim Kardashian, the 35-year-old American reality TV sensation, had been viciously bound and robbed at gunpoint within the confines of her opulent Paris apartment. The thieves had made off with approximately $10 million (£7.5 million) worth of jewelry, including a $4 million (£3 million) engagement ring, a generous gesture from her then-husband, rapper Kanye West.
Yunice Abbas' wife fixed him with a piercing glare. "This bears your hallmark," she muttered, her tone laced with accusation. And she was prescient. Abbas, now 62, had spent a lifetime dipping his toes into criminal waters, ranging from minor offenses to audacious bank robberies. In his subsequent memoir, he admitted that the Kardashian heist was intended to be his swansong before retirement.
However, a litany of missteps ensured the caper was doomed from inception. By early 2017, mere months after the daring theft, Abbas and several of his alleged accomplices found themselves in handcuffs. Now, ten of them are poised to face justice in a Parisian courtroom, in a trial slated to unfold over nearly three weeks.
Among them, five are indicted for actively participating in the heist, while six face accessory charges. Most hail from the 1950s, prompting the French media to nickname them the "Grandpa Robbers." Abbas and Aomar Ait Khedache, a 68-year-old cohort, have confessed their roles; the others remain steadfast in their silence. One has passed into eternity, while another, aged 81 and battle-scarred by advanced dementia, will be excused from proceedings.
By the time the trial commences, nearly a decade will have elapsed since the audacious crime. On the fateful night bridging October 2nd and 3rd, 2016, Abbas and four accomplices allegedly scoped out Kardashian's discreet suite within the Hotel de Pourtalès, nestled in Paris's glamorous Madeleine district, a stone's throw from the Opéra and Place Vendome.
Around 3:00 AM local time, clad in police uniforms and brandishing a firearm, they stormed the hotel's lobby. They cowed and handcuffed Abderrahmane Ouatiki, an Algerian PhD student moonlighting as the night receptionist, and marched him to Kardashian's chamber. She, exhausted from days of immersing herself in Paris Fashion Week festivities, was resting peacefully on her bed when she heard hurried footsteps ascending the stairs.
She called out for her sister Kourtney and her stylist Stephanie, but when there was no reply, panic began to set in. "I sensed someone had come for me," she recounted years later in an interview with David Letterman. "You can just feel it." Desperately dialing 911, she soon realized the number was fruitless outside the US. As she tried reaching her then-security guard Pascal Duvier, who had accompanied her sister to a club, the masked men burst in, shoved her onto the bed, and began shouting.
"They persisted in their mantra: 'The ring, the ring!' And I was so startled that it took me a moment to process what was happening," she recounted to Letterman. The language barrier necessitated Ouatiki stepping in as an interpreter. They discovered the ring and hastily stuffed it into a bag alongside other jewelry and a thousand euros in cash. One of the men seized her, pulling her close. Wearing only a robe, Kim feared the worst, thinking he intended to assault her, as she later told Letterman, tears streaming down her face. Instead, employing the technique of 'saucissonnage'—binding victims like a sausage—he restrained her with zip ties and duct tape, leaving her confined in the bathroom. Then, he and his accomplices fled the scene on bicycles and on foot. Kim managed to free herself from her bonds, and shortly thereafter, her security guard arrived.
Traumatized, Kim provided a statement to the French police in the wee hours of the morning and caught a flight back to the United States by dawn. Abbas only realized who their victim was later in the day when he glimpsed the TV screen his wife was watching. "Breaking news alerts declared that Kim Kardashian had been robbed at gunpoint—such was the magnitude of the event," remarks LA-based entertainment journalist KJ Matthews. "We were mesmerized by her, her family, and their ascent to fame. When the heist occurred, we were astounded. How did burglars manage to get so close to her?" Matthews questions.
However, while there were clear lapses in Kardashian's security, the burglars also made grave errors. "They overlooked the advancements in police techniques, capable of tracing micro traces of DNA anywhere," notes Patricia Tourancheau, a crime reporter and author of "Kim and the Grandpa Robbers," a comprehensive account of the heist and the lives of the perpetrators. "Dressed as police, they believed they were invisible," she adds.
In 2016, Paris was still grappling with the terrorist attacks of the previous year, and CCTV cameras were omnipresent, allowing police to spot the thieves and witness them escaping with the jewels. Other aspects of the tale hint at the thieves' sloppy planning. Abbas fell off his bike while fleeing, dropping a bag filled with jewels. The next day, a passerby found a diamond-encrusted necklace and wore it at the office throughout the day, only realizing its origin after watching the news.
Police arrested Abbas and several others in January 2017, confirming they had been under surveillance for weeks, thanks to DNA evidence that matched Aomar Ait Khedache, alias "Omar the Old." French media published a stakeout photo from the police, showing several of the men enjoying coffee and conversation at a Parisian café that winter, just prior to their arrest.
The lingering question—sure to be delved into during the trial—is how the gang gained insight into Kardashian's schedule. Court documents reviewed by the BBC reveal that both Khedache and Abbas stated that all the necessary information was publicly posted by Kardashian herself, whose career was built on sharing the details of her life and whereabouts.
But how did the gang manage to ascertain that Kim Kardashian would find herself alone in her room, sans her security detail, on the fateful night of October 2nd? The documents at hand reveal that police suspected Gary Madar, whose sibling Michael's company had been catering transportation services, including taxis, to the Kardashians for a considerable number of years, of aiding the heist by providing inside information about Kim's whereabouts to the perpetrators. Gary Madar was apprehended in January 2017. His legal representative, Arthur Vercken, vigorously contested the allegations, asserting to the BBC, "From the outset, the case rested on assumptions, hypotheses, and theories – yet, no concrete evidence of Madar's involvement was ever uncovered." He further elucidated that although the Madar brothers did exchange texts pertaining to the Kardashians during Fashion Week, it was merely out of boredom, and at the time of the robbery, Gary was fast asleep. Notably, Gary's brother, Michael, is not among the accused. Vercken pondered, "Five men orchestrated this crime. Don't you think one of them kept a vigilant eye on who was entering and exiting her hotel?" He suggested that Gary's arrest was merely a tactic "to demonstrate the functionality of the French justice system."
The upcoming trial also aims to unravel the mystery of the jewels' ultimate destination. Police surveillance of the gang's phones disclosed that shortly after the heist, Omar the Old journeyed from Paris to Antwerp, Belgium, a hub for the global diamond trade, where approximately 50% of polished diamonds and 80% of rough diamonds are transacted, according to the Diamond Investment Office. Reports indicate that numerous jewels were melted down or disassembled and sold off. Abbas pocketed €75,000 (£64,000), while others received significantly less. As for Kim's engagement ring, Omar the Old admitted that the gang was too apprehensive to sell it due to its high traceability. To this day, it remains missing.
The incident left Kim visibly shaken, marking the commencement of her social media hiatus. During an episode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," she tearfully recounted the harrowing night, expressing fear for her life. Subsequently, she revealed that the robbery transformed her into a "less materialistic person." Following the incident, her sister Khloe informed The Ellen DeGeneres Show that, for safety reasons, the Kardashian family was making adjustments to their social media presence. "The most significant change was in her security detail," shared KJ Matthews with the BBC.
Patricia Tourancheau, author of a book on the heist, expressed fascination with the "collision between these traditional Parisian banlieue burglars and this international social media sensation." She laughed, "They escaped on bicycles, while she traverses the globe on private jets." Describing them as "elderly, down-on-their-luck thieves who are perpetually broke and entangled in intricate schemes," she noted their encounter with a colossal celebrity whom they barely recognized. "They were far from being the 'elite' as initially rumored," she added. "In reality, they were somewhat of a ragtag group of losers. They are akin to those who, in the 60s and 70s, robbed banks or post offices before transitioning to drug trafficking and, eventually, jewels due to their ease."
Around mid-May, Kim will confront the suspects for the first time in years as she testifies as a witness. Though cameras are prohibited in French courts, her arrival at the tribunal on Ile de la Cité will undoubtedly ignite the same media frenzy that has accompanied her for more than a decade. In his memoir, Abbas harbored hope that the victim's status and the case's global reach would not unduly sway the judges. However, he also confessed that on the trial's final day, he would bring a duffle bag packed with his belongings, prepared for a potential jail sentence. "The issue with the past," he wrote, "is that it clings to you for as long as you live."
