The Parisian underworld gang alleged to have robbed Kim Kardashian at gunpoint are finally set to go on trial almost a decade after the $10 million heist that stunned the world.
And ahead of the long-awaited trial, a MailOnline investigation has pieced together the fullest picture yet of what happened the night masked gunmen burst into the star’s £12,000-a-night penthouse where she was naked except for a bathrobe.
Kardashian was bound, gagged and locked in a bathroom, before the robbers made off with her lavish jewellery collection, including a $4million engagement ring from Kanye West.
Using detailed police and prosecution documents as well as the accounts of some who admit participating in the raid, we can today reconstruct exactly how the Hollywood-style heist was pulled off.
All the dozen defendants accused – who have been dubbed ‘Kardashian’s Twelve’ after the Oceans heist film series starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt – are currently at liberty having been released from their high-security remand cells prior to their trial.
At the centre of the entire case is one Aomar Aït Khedache, a self-confessed career criminal.
Now 69, Old Omar, as he is affectionately known by French crime reporters, is hard of hearing, short-sighted and suffering from an acute heart condition – but he is far from shy about his involvement in the heist, which took place in the early hours of October 3rd 2016, describing it as the most memorable of his life.
Indeed, Old Omar freely admits that he was the leader of the gang that subjected the American reality TV star to an ordeal said to still haunt her.
And he is not alone in admitting it: one his key lieutenants, Yunice Abbas, now 72, has even written a book unambiguously entitled, I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.
The Parisian underworld gang alleged to have robbed Kim Kardashian at gunpoint are finally set to go on trial almost a decade after the $10 million heist that stunned the world
A french police car is seen outside Kim Kardashian’s Luxury Apartment after being robbed at gunpoint by masked men during Paris Fashion Week
Yunice Abbas, now 72, has even written a book unambiguously entitled, I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian
Yet, it will not be until the end of next month at the earliest that Aït Khedache, Abbas and the other ten accused will finally appear in the dock at the Paris Assizes, accused of ‘armed robbery in an organised gang’, ‘kidnap’ and ‘criminal conspiracy’.
Despite the levity of some involved these are hugely serious charges which could well see the older defendants locked up for the rest of their lives
But delays have been constant throughout the nine years so no one will be surprised if the April date slips.
Officers from the elite Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) of the Paris Judicial Police are particularly angry about this, having caught all of the alleged gang in simultaneous raids back as long ago in January 2017.
The detectives were convinced that justice would be swift and decisive, but timetabling problems caused by high-profile terrorist trials caused backlogs.
There were also fears that publicity because of the Kardashian connection process would destroy the upmarket Paris tourism industry at a time of prestige five-star events, right up until last summer’s Olympics.
So nine years on, most of the key defendants are also old and sick, meaning that they were all freed from high-security remand cells where they were originally expected to remain until trial.
Frustrated by the continuous adjournments, investigators have meanwhile provided an extraordinary account of the raid to MailOnline.
Leaks include a neatly typed document listing Ms Kardashian’s married name before her 2022 divorce, reading, VICTIM: Ms. Kimberly Kardashian-West (damage of $10,000,000).
Kardashian was bound, gagged and locked in a bathroom, before the robbers made off with her lavish jewellery collection, including a $4million engagement ring from Kanye West (above)
Officers from the elite Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) (pictured) of the Paris Judicial Police are particularly angry about this, having caught all of the alleged gang in simultaneous raids back as long ago in January 2017
Inside the Kim Kardashian Paris heist crime scene: Chilling images emerge showing a gag used to silence the star and ripped tape used to bind her
Pictures of gaffer tape used to gag Kim and Serflex cable ties used to bind her
The police dossier shows how a combination of DNA and CCTV analysis, phone taps and geolocation, and dogged determination by detectives including the physical tailing of suspects, led to the smashing of Omar & Co within two months of their Hollywood-style heist.
The saga began back in the summer of 2016, when Old Omar got a tip that a ‘big American star was coming to town’ and that she was showing off her fabulous wealth on Instagram.
This was a time when old school criminals were abandoning traditional heists for so-called sauccissons – ‘sausage raids’ which involve following rich people into their homes, ‘wrapping them up like sausages’ and then forcing them at gunpoint to say where they kept their valuables, before stealing them.
According to prosecutors, the Kardashian tip came from Florus Héroui, who ran a bar in Le Marais.
The central Paris district has always been a hotbed of professional criminals, but is now also populated by wealthy creatives, including actors and fashionistas.
Héroui is said to have got precise information about Ms Kardashian’s movements during Paris Fashion Week from Gary Madar, a VIP greeter who regularly met stars as they arrived at Paris Le Bourget airport by private jet.
Crucially, Madar was trusted and liked by Ms Kardashian, and had close family links to the car company she always used when in France – and they were photographed together many times.
Old Omar was fleeing justice at the time, having been arrested for his alleged involvement in a drugs racket, and was relying on his petite blonde mistress, Christiane Glotin, for safe houses to stay in.
According to prosecutors, the Kardashian tip came from Florus Héroui (above), who ran a bar in Le Marais
Héroui is said to have got precise information about Ms Kardashian’s movements during Paris Fashion Week from Gary Madar (above), a VIP greeter who regularly met stars as they arrived at Paris Le Bourget airport by private jet
Bodyguard Pascal Duvier, Gary Madar and Kourtney Kardashian are seen at Charles-de-Gaulle airport on September 29, 2016 in Paris
Michael Madar, Bodyguard Pascal Duvier and Gary Madar are seen at Charles-de-Gaulle airport on September 29, 2016 in Paris
Old Omar was fleeing justice at the time, having been arrested for his alleged involvement in a drugs racket, and was relying on his petite blonde mistress, Christiane Glotin (above), for safe houses to stay inÂ
Better known simply as Cathy, the Marais-born 79-year-old who was first convicted of drug trafficking in the early 1990s, is on the Kardashian charge sheet as a key organiser of the heist.
Back in 2016, she allegedly joined Omar and other gang members ‘oggling Kim’s jewels after Googling pictures on a computer,’ according to a police investigator.
‘None of them had much idea who Kim was, but they liked her very expensive bling,’ the source added.
All were particularly interested in Ms Kardashian’s 18.88-carat engagement ring, especially after she proudly announced that she ‘did not wear fake jewellery’.
Scouting out the star’s Paris address was easy, Omar told detectives – the gang simply had to follow Ms Kardashian’s Mercedes V-Class people carrier to find out that she was staying in the Hôtel de Pourtalès, a converted mansion close to La Madeleine church.
Better known as the ‘No Address’, Pourtalès is a collection of dream apartments which have welcomed multiple Hollywood A-listers, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, as well as Madonna and the late Prince.
Crucially, the tip was that Ms Kardashian would enjoy some ‘me time’ alone in the Sky Penthouse at Pourtalès, while allowing her staff and family members out on the town.
This is exactly what happened in the early hours of October 3rd, when, at 2.20am, three cyclists in fluorescent yellow vests approached the No Address and parked their bikes in the courtyard.
A general view of Kim Kardashian’s luxury apartment Hotel de Pourtales on Rue Tronchet in the 8th arrondissement, where she was robbed at gunpoint by masked men
Kim Kardashian and her bodyguard Pascal Duvier seen out and about in Paris before the robbery on October 2, 2016
François ‘Big Guy’ Delaporte (left) and Pierre ‘Big Pierrot’ Bouianère (right)
Two more arrived on foot, and all of them were also wearing black balaclavas and police armbands before confronting the property’s only concierge, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, an Algerian father-of-one and Paris University PhD student then aged 39.
Pointing an antique Mauser 7.65mm at his head, the gang led Mr Ouatiki upstairs to the penthouse, where Ms Kardashian was lying on her bed in her bathrobe.
The then 35-year-old mother-of-two was alone after her German bodyguard, Pascal Duvier – whom she later sacked – went out dancing at L’Arc, a nightclub by the Arc de Triomphe, with a group that also included her sister, Kourtney Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian recalled hearing noises outside the door, later telling officers: ‘I said ‘Hello!’, but since no one answered, I knew something was wrong.’
Two ‘aggressive men’ in black police uniforms then burst in with the handcuffed Mr Ouatiki.
Ms Kardashian intially tried to call 911 – the American police emergency number – on her iPhone 6, but of course it did not work in France.
‘He puts a gun directly to her head,’ Mr Ouatiki recalled. ‘She’s crying, she’s screaming. She’s saying, “Don’t kill me, I have babies, please, I have babies! I’m a mom! Take what you want!” She’s wearing just a robe and her hair is tied back.’
To prevent Ms Kardashian from screaming too loudly, the robbers taped her mouth shut before locking her in her bathroom.
They spent a full 49 minutes in the penthouse, before leaving with a haul estimated to be worth around $10million.
As they fled, one accidently dropped a platinum cross adorned with diamonds that was found the next morning.
After cutting through her ties herself, Ms Kardashian went to another apartment downstairs, where her stylist, Simone Harouche, had barricaded herself in a bathroom.
A suspect in Kim Kardashian West’s Paris robbery is brought to BRB building, Brigade de Repression du Banditisme in 2017
A suspect in Kim Kardashian West’s Paris robbery is brought to BRB building, Brigade de Repression du Banditisme in 2017
Police were then alerted, and they took statements from Ms Kardashian before she was allowed to travel to Le Bourget at 7.40am, to take her private jet home.
In turn, Kanye West ended a concert in New York early, because of ‘a family emergency’. He was looking after the couple’s young children, Saint and North.
Back in Paris, detectives soon gathered two genetic fingerprints on the Serflex ties used to restrain Ms Kardashian and Mr Ouatiki.
The samples corresponded to the prints of Aït Khedache and Abbas – both of whom had their details all over police forensic databases because of their criminal antecedents.
Painstackingly gathering all video recordings in the area, detectives also found plenty of incriminating images.
They included multiple sightings of a Peugeot 508 which was driven by Aït Khedache’s son, Harminy Aït Khedache.
Brigadier Christophe Korrell – a police telephone specialist – also went through 7,591 cell phone calls made in the Madelaine area around the robbery between October 2nd and 3rd.
Among them was a number beginning with 07 50 that Brig. Korrell described as a classic disposal ‘war phone’ typically used by crime lords.
The ‘war phone’ in question was owned by Old Omar, while others were linked to all the other prime suspects.
These included Didier ‘Blue Eyes’ Dubreucq, who was allegedly the second robber to actually enter the penthouse, along with Old Omar.
Dubreucq had served 23 years in prison for a post office robbery and for importing two tons of Colombian cocaine into Europe via a Saudi Arabian prince’s private jet.
Rather than arrest the suspects straight away, the BRB launched tailing operations, which included placing GPS surveillance devices on suspects’ cars.
This is when new ‘faces’ appeared, including Marceau ‘Rough Nose’ Baumgertner – an alleged Paris fence who is charged with ‘concealment of stolen gold, jewels and watches’.
Known as a gypsy market trader with a pet dog called Al Capone, the 70-year-old is recorded as having made trips to Antwerp – the diamond capital of Europe – with Old Omar and Glotin to allegedly sell the Kardashian jewellery.
Marceau ‘Rough Nose’ Baumgertner (left) and Didier ‘Blue Eyes’ Dubreucq (right)
By December 5th 2016, BRB officers were allegedly watching the gang ‘sharing the loot’ on the terrace of a Marais café (pictured)
Old Omar has told police the gold was melted down and resold, while saying he has ‘no idea’ where Ms Kardashian’s ring ended up.
By December 5th 2016, BRB officers were allegedly watching the gang ‘sharing the loot’ on the terrace of a Marais café close to the one where Omar had received his first tip about Ms Kardashian.
Long-focus lenses caught them all smoking heavily and sipping espressos in the winter sunshine.
A month later – on January 9th 2017 – the BRB burst into all their homes, handcuffed them, and placed them in custody.
Aït Khedache originally denied any wrongdoing, but when he heard about the DNA evidence against him, he made a full confession.
It followed one of the detectives telling him in a recorded interview: ‘We have your kid [Harminy Aït Khedache] and your girlfriend [Cathy Glotin] in custody, and we’re going to make their lives miserable if you don’t talk’.
Deeply traumatized by the robbery, Ms Kardashian avoided Paris for more than a year, so investigating judge Armelle Briand had to travel to the USA to interview her.
The first thing Ms Kardashian told Judge Briand was: ‘I have a feeling that it’s not the right place for me, I mean Paris.
‘I remember that I had an indescribable feeling, as if my heart would leave my body, I thought that I was going to die.’
According to her recorded testimony, Ms Kardashian added: ‘This experience opened my eyes to the fact that the world was no longer a safe place.’
She said her ‘relationship with valuables had changed’, and that ‘it’s become a burden to be responsible for such expensive items.’
It remains to be seen whether Ms Kardashian arrives in Paris in April to give evidence in court against her alleged assailants.
Despite some confessions, and the legal right of police and prosecution to leak information about the case, all officially remain innocent until proved guilty in connection with the largest jewellery theft committed against a single person in France this century.
As the days go by, one of the defendants told Mail Online: ‘At this rate we’ll all be appearing in the dock in wheelchairs or coffins.’
