Eight found guilty in Kim Kardashian Paris jewel heist

MARSEILLE, France (CN) — A Paris criminal court found eight men guilty of in the multimillion-dollar robbery of Kim Kardashian in 2016.

Ten people faced various charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and more in the sensational case. One of the accused, Yunice Abbas, wrote a book called “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian” and said he regretted his role as lookout.

The ringleader of the group — dubbed “Grandpa robbers” due to the advanced ages of several members — Aomar Aït Khedache was sentenced to eight years in prison, five of which were suspended.

The panel also found seven of the defendants guilty of crimes including robbery in an organized gang, kidnapping, sequestration, acquisition and possession of weapons, assisting an armed gang, aggravated theft, and complicity in preparation of a criminal act. Most also received prison sentences though all will walk free due to time served.

Kardashian was staying in the Hôtel de Pourtalès, an exclusive mansion hotel in central Paris that markets its privacy, when men stormed into her bedroom around 3 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2016, after learning she was alone. Some say Kardashian made herself vulnerable by posting live updates on social media, while others claim her driver passed along information.

On May 13, to a courthouse full of lawyers, hundreds of accredited journalists and the men charged with the robbery, Kardashian explained that she was getting ready for bed when two men dressed as police officers came into her room. They were accompanied by Abderrahmane Ouatiki, the hotel’s night manager, who they had handcuffed.

“What’s happening? What’s happening? And I think that confused me a bit more — not understanding if he was a part of this or he wasn’t,” she recalled asking after seeing Ouatiki, who she recognized. “I understand now how shocked he was and he was just a victim like myself, and we were in this together.”

The robbers kept asking for her ring — the roughly $4 million engagement piece given to her by then-fiancé Kanye West. She had posted photos of the ring on social media. She was in a state of shock and couldn’t understand what they wanted, but they found it next to her bed, she said.

The ring, and most of the other jewels taken that night, were never recovered.

The robbers held her at gunpoint before throwing her onto the bed and tying her hands together with zip ties, before binding her legs. She told the courtroom she feared being raped and killed.

“At that point I was sure that’s when they were going to shoot me,” she said during testimony. “So I said a prayer for my family and my mom and my sister and best friend.”

Kardashian said she feared that her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, might find her dead on the bed when she returned to the room.

When the men finally left, she managed to free her wrists and alert her stylist, Simone Harouche, who was staying downstairs. Harouche also testified in the case; she said that the robbery scarred her so much that she became an interior designer.

The case raised questions about fame, privacy and security in the age of social media.

Paul Jones, a co-founder of the security firm VIS Protection, told Courthouse News that social media has become a “shopping channel” for organized criminals.

“The footprint that these celebrities and high net worth people have is open for the world to see, and [criminals] can see their movements, where they are, what they do,” he said. “They can see social media, they can see what they’ve got, what they want — and they go and get it.”

He said that theft has always existed, but social media makes some crimes easier. He said Kardashian’s security strategy was weak.

“You know, it’s easy to take, especially when they’re staying in an apartment block with one concierge and no security — that’s a no-brainer,” he said. “As you saw with the concierge, one person can be taken over quite quickly and they will do what they need to save their lives; one person needs mutual support, needs somebody else.”

After the robbery, Kardashian has been more conservative with her posts on social media, especially limiting location sharing and displays of expensive objects. She also bolstered her security team.

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