Team Flavio Becca: will they stay or will they go?
Late payments, lawsuits, failed sports ventures, disgruntled former business partners and embezzlement allegations. Flavio Becca, the property tycoon from Luxembourg, has had little to celebrate since 2011, his ‘annus horribilis’. But since then, he has done nothing to rebuild his reputation. Instead, accusations are mounting and his close circle may be losing patience with him.
Let’s recall that fateful year. It started so well with Becca acquiring the licence for the world cycling tour and Luxembourg’s top team, Leopard. Becca promised Fifteen million euros over four years for the team that was to win the Tour de France. Instead, some crashed out, one was alleged of doping, and the famous Schleck brothers complained about non-payment. The team never attracted a corporate sponsor, and together with his long-time confidante André Wilwert, the former chairman of Fortuna Bank and now its honorary president, with whom Becca ran the venture, they conceded defeat and the holding company Promobe Finance sold the licence.
In business, things did not work out any better for Becca. The trained bricklayer had big plans for a new sports stadium with adjacent shopping mall on land he largely owned in Livingen. Then-prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker (now President of the European Commission) was considered to be at least sympathetic to Becca. It is not clear if he considered Juncker part of his circle, but Becca was confident that his high-ranking connections within Luxembourg’s political and banking elite would get the Livingen project approved. Another trump card in Becca’s Rolodex — so he thought — was Jean-Claude Finck: the general manager and Chairman at BCEE, Luxembourg’s oldest bank, also sat on the board of Becca’s fund manager Olos Management.
Becca was certain the Livingen plans would be approved. Again, with Wilwert by his side, who was a board member at property fund manager Olos — which Becca co-owned and would later be the subject of a secretive legal battle with the other owner after Becca claimed he owned 90% of the assets when a 50/50 split had been agreed upon foundation of the fund — Becca’s plans were “indefinitely postponed” by the Luxembourg authorities. Groupe Guy Rollinger, the developer of the planned shopping Centre, sued Becca for alleged unpaid invoices in connection to the plans.
It soon emerged that Olos was, in fact, highly leveraged. The €600 million fund manager had mortgages of around €500 million. It also had a large loan with BCEE.
Becca, it seems, made powerful enemies with the failed stadium bid. His home and offices are understood to have been raided in late 2011, after an anonymous tip-off. The charge: embezzlement of funds from companies he didn’t wholly own.
These charges have stuck with Becca to this day, and it is another flagship company in his complicated network of over 80 firms that remains at the centre of the allegations: Kurt Constructions. Press reports in Luxembourg’s Privat magazine say Becca used funds from Kurt to buy luxury goods for himself, such as jewellery, wine, cars and even weapons. This year, he also bought a large piece of land in Germany used for hunting, and again, the allegation is that this was bought with funds from Kurt.
Kurt’s finance director is Marc Streibel. Why the man in charge of finances never realized the missing millions — the press report cites €4 million to €5 million — is a matter for the investigators. It is also unclear whether Streibel benefitted from the embezzlement. The highest court in Luxembourg now has the matter on its desk.
The public prosecutor will want to talk to another close manager in Becca’s network: Daniel Gillard. He was a board member at Kurt and Promobe Finance, as well as Promobe Holdings and Happy Quick, all firms with Becca connections. Gillard is also the director of a side venture of Becca, Swiss-Italian watch company Anonimo. While there has been no official confirmation that Becca is indeed the owner of the watchmaker, the company was revived with considerable funds in 2013. Gillard is the director of Orologie Firenze, which bought Anonimo’s stock in 2009.
He is now working with old colleagues: Wilwert is president of Anonimo and Streibel a director. They are joined by Frédéric Bastiat, who was formerly at Nina Ricci Watches.
While Bastiat is not directly linked to Becca and the embezzlement charges at Kurt and ownership battle at Olos, these cases may well implicate him as well. If Wilwert and Gillard are found to have known about any wrongdoing in Becca’s empire, Anonimo will almost certainly be investigated as well. So far, it remains a mystery if and how Becca bought such an old and luxurious watch company. Should the funds for this latest Becca purchase also have found to have been embezzled, its future is uncertain.
While Becca’s old chums may consider themselves safe sitting in the plush offices of a watchmaker in Switzerland, they may want to rethink their allegiance to Becca.
