Paris (AFP)
The Paris public prosecutor's office requested a trial against Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, accused of "aggravated swindle" on a wealthy and depressed man whom they implicated in the aborted plan to relaunch their science fiction program "Temps X" , AFP learned Friday from concordant sources.
The decision whether or not to send the Bogdanoff brothers and a Franco-Congolese diplomat's son, accused of the same facts, to correctional law is now up to the investigating judge responsible for the case.
The three men deny having abused the credulity of Cyrille P., a friend they have known for a few months when the investigation began in late 2017.
This former hotelier, a millionaire suffering from a manic-depressive psychosis according to experts, committed suicide on August 31, 2018, at the age of 53, from the cliffs of Etretat (Seine-Maritime).
Two months earlier, Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, whom he nicknamed "Brother first" and "Brother absent", were placed in police custody and placed under investigation in this case.
In its indictment of March 26, consulted by AFP, the prosecution accuses the trio of having put Cyrille P. "under control" to involve him in "chimerical projects": a fragile attempt to revive "Temps X" , a vague promotional film project from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the purchase of a Gazelle helicopter that can only be piloted by Igor.
The latter is then in financial difficulties and convinces his new friend to buy him, in joint possession, half of his villa in the XVIth arrondissement of Paris, for 750,000 euros.
Cyrille P. consents to all these investments, and gives the trio cash in cash, estimated at 160,000 euros, and signs eight checks for a total of 1.5 million euros, including one for the villa at the end of December 2017.
But all will be blocked by the bank. At the time, it just reported to the Paris prosecutor's office the circle of potential profiteers, which pushes his client to squander his fortune for three months in cinematographic and artistic projects, "more or less serious", notes the prosecution.
Famous for hosting the first science fiction show in the 1980s, the Bogdanoff brothers, 70, are also known for their unusual physical transformation and popular science books challenged by specialists.
© 2020 AFP