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Former Adidas owner Bernard Tapie was attacked and tied up by burglars in his house near Paris.

The 78-year-old and his wife Dominique were asleep when four thieves broke into them shortly after midnight, the AFP news agency learned from investigators on Sunday.

The intruders beat the couple and tied them up with electric cables - and then fled with their prey.

Dominique Tapie was reportedly able to free herself and made it to the neighbors' house.

From there she alerted the police.

Among other things, the thieves stole jewelry.

The value of their prey was initially unclear.

Bernard Tapie did not want to be admitted to the clinic

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While Dominique Tapie was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, her husband, who was suffering from cancer, refused to be taken to the clinic.

Tapie is a colorful manager and ex-politician who is highly controversial in France.

In Germany he is best known as a former Adidas owner.

The sale of his shares in the German sporting goods manufacturer occupied the courts for years.

Under the socialist President François Mitterrand, Tapie was Minister for Urban Development in the 1990s.

He is also responsible for one of the biggest scandals in European football history: he was sentenced to eight months in prison at the end of 1995 for the bribery affair involving the Olympique Marseille club, which he bought in 1986.

Tapie had paid bribes before a point game and thus contributed to victories.

Tapie had to file for personal bankruptcy before that.

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Tapie grew up in simple circumstances.

He worked as a salesman for television sets, later went into business for himself, buying and selling companies.

A large conglomerate of company shares emerged.

Tapie had relationships in political circles.

In 1994 his company filed for bankruptcy.

He has been convicted of embezzlement, embezzlement and bribery in multiple trials.

He became known in Germany when he bought Adidas in 1990.

Because the bank Crédit Lyonnais, which Tapie had commissioned with the sale, bought Adidas itself and sold it shortly afterwards at a high profit.

An arbitration tribunal awarded Tapie 400 million euros, but because of this payment Christine Lagarde, who later became the head of the IMF, had to answer in court.

In the early 1960s, Tapie was a Formula 3 driver, tried his hand at singing, was a television presenter, and later a writer and actor.

He played in the 1996 film "Men, Women: A Handbook".