Bound, gagged, and locked in the bathroom of a luxurious apartment in central Paris, Kim Kardashian feared death as five masked thugs stole millions of dollars worth of her jewellery.
In a case which would leave the Californian media personality and businesswoman traumatised for years onwards, a gang of robbers rampaged through the apartment on 3 October 2016, where she was alone while her bodyguard was out with her sister, Kourtney.
Ten people, including five male pensioners dubbed the ‘Grandpa robbers’, will now face trial nearly nine years after the crime, which took place as Kardashian, then 35, visited the French capital for its 2016 Fashion Week.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy. Eight of the 10 deny any involvement in the case, which is seen as France’s biggest robbery of an individual person, with the value of stolen jewellery reported at nearly $10m – including an 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring gifted by former husband Kanye West worth $4m.
A manhunt followed the robbery, with DNA traces on the plastic bands used to tie Kardashian’s wrists helping lead to the initial arrest of 17 people in January 2017.
Twelve people were later charged in a trial, which was due to begin in 2021. A number of factors reportedly led to its long delay, including multiple Covid lockdowns, court timetables clogged up by other major trials – including for the 2015 Paris attacks and French political figures Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy – and even fears of a negative impact on tourism with Paris hosting the 2024 Olympics.
Kardashian, who fears she has become a “full robot” with “no emotion” following the harrowing ordeal, is expected to give evidence in person at the trial, which will see prosecutors trawl through DNA evidence and surveillance footage before it wraps up in late May.
She is expected to describe how she sat alone in her bedroom without security protection when the five robbers, who were posing as police officers, forcibly entered her apartment and conducted the robbery.
At the time of the incident, Kardashian posted regularly on social media, displaying her jewellery and revealing her location. These details, Kardashian later said, may have helped to facilitate the robbery. “They knew my every move and what I had,” she told the Forbes Power Women’s Summit, adding that she has now changed how she posts online.
The 44-year-old may also speak on the damaging long-term psychological effects the robbery had on her, something she has been open about in recent years.
It was on 3 October 2016 when Kardashian was lying in the bed of the luxury apartment in central Paris, that she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. After calling out, and hearing no response, she knew something “wasn’t quite right”, she recalled in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians months after the crime.
Two men in police uniforms had handcuffed the concierge and forced him to let them into her apartment. “What I've heard from talking to him afterward is they said, you know, ‘Where’s the rapper’s wife? Let us up to her room!’ in French,” Kardashian recalled. “He ended up being our interpreter because I couldn't understand them, they couldn’t understand me.”
When she was dragged to the hallway at the top of the stairs, Kardashian saw that the pair were armed – and began to fear the worst.
“He pulled me toward him at the front of the bed and I thought, ‘OK, this is the moment they're going to rape me,’” she said. “I fully mentally prepped myself – and then he didn’t.”
The robber put duct tape round her legs and a gun to her head, she explained: “I just knew that was the moment. They’re just totally going to shoot me in the head. I just prayed that Kourtney’s going to have a normal life after she sees my dead body on the bed.”
She was left, bound and gagged, as the robbers escaped with her jewels. News of the heist spread rapidly worldwide, splashed across the front pages as the internet personality rushed back to the US.
Just one day later, it was brought up as a hypothetical scenario in the Supreme Court during Lawrence Eugene Shaw v United States, concerning the definition of bank fraud. During oral arguments, Justice Stephen Breyer asked: “Even Kardashian’s thief, if there is one, believes that all that jewellery is insured. Indeed, over-insured. So it’s not theft?”
Speaking openly since the horror episode, Kardashian believes that the Paris robbery made fundamental changes to her personality and her approach to the world. She fears she is turning into a “full robot with like, no emotion,” she said in an episode of the reality show last year.
“[My therapist] was like, ‘You think calm is your superpower. I think you are so desensitised from trauma that you literally are frozen in fight or flight,’” she said. “So then she was like, ‘One time in life something happened, and you remained calm, and that worked for you. So you will always choose calm.’”
Aomar Ait Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, is alleged to have orchestrated the operation to rob the global megastar. The 68-year-old admits participating in the heists but denies acting as the group’s ringleader.
Another alleged culprit was Yunice Abbas, a 71-year-old who has admitted his part in the robbery and even wrote a memoir about it – before a French court ruled he could not take any profits from its sales.
Speaking out in French media ahead of the trial, Abbas said he was part of the group that entered the building and that he stood guard downstairs. On Sunday, he told TF1 TV that the culprits were “all grandads”.
Having served 20 years in prison for robbery, Abbas had struggled financially after being out of prison for 10 years.
“I had a proposal for a big job, which would be my last … They told me there was a 20-carat diamond that wasn’t protected … That was tempting,” he told the French broadcaster. “I was told it was the wife of a rapper. I didn’t ask questions.”
Twelve people were originally charged with the robbery, despite only 10 standing trial. One suspect died before the case reached trial and another, who was declared unable to participate for health reasons, will be tried separately.
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