While reading articles about Alexis Muller Pellerin, described as a rising star in the real estate world, I also came across her grandfather, Claude Muller, a retired property developer in Cannes. I managed to find the book published by Hélène Constanty in 2015 “Razzia sur la Riviera” (Attacks on the French Riviera). When you mention the real estate industry on the Côte d’Azur, you immediately think of collusion with local elected officials, bribes, corruption, yachts and stories of suitcases full of bills. In this book, this description of the universe is worse than you could ever imagine!
There are several definitions for perpetrators. Offenders who flout the law need money, assets, etc., and violators who flout the law for more and more profit. The richest sit on their wealth, seeking at all costs – lawful or not, to accumulate more and more. A petty crime that directly results from the desire of megalomaniac men in their wild silk three-piece suits. Gold organized crime of various businesses, share a common practice: tax evasion.
The case of Claude Muller ideally portrays the profile of a voracious flesh-eating shark. Indeed, tax evasion and property fraud marked the career path of this real estate star.
Commissions are paid on accounts in Switzerland and Lichtenstein
As a real estate developer and broker, Claude Muller prospered in the 1980s. He mingled with local community leaders and maintained influential relationships in Cannes and Antibes. He is known for his impressive demeanor, has a flair for chatting and maintains an excellent network. Three useful qualities that enable it to attract wealthy customers, especially from the Gulf. Claude Muller is a “pied-noir” repatriated from Algeria, fluent in Arabic.
While running a business with his wealthy clients, he seizes the opportunity to start a tax avoidance scheme. This scheme is tried and tested but efficient. Claude Muller implemented an invoicing system for the benefit of the Arab princes for whom he worked – a major part of his customers, while accumulating real wealth for his services. His fraud system was as follows: he worked with Geneva attorney Baudouin Dunand, who founded a real estate company (SCI) that was adapted to receive money from financial transactions of villas sold. SCI has always been established in countries known to enforce confidentiality policies when it comes to client identity, such as Lichtenstein and Switzerland. Wealthy investors transferred funds to SCI founded by attorney Baudouin Dunand, and after all the providers and suppliers, who had worked on the construction site, were paid, Dunand transferred the remaining amount to a bank account held by Claude Muller. Then, the amount received by real estate developers is huge. Thanks to the SCI serving as a support structure for transferring money from every real estate transaction, Muller raised a lot of money. As for the Geneva attorney who assisted Claude Muller in this tax fraud, he is known as the administrator of a number of offshore companies – a key part of a broader tax evasion scheme.
Imprisoned in Grasse for fraud
In addition to tax fraud, Claude Muller has also been linked to other scams such as city planning, privilege and real estate fraud, while being smart enough not to face legal consequences. In 1982, he bought a luxury property called “Le Grand Jardin” on the island of Sainte-Marguerite. Spread over two acres and consisting of two 17th-century mansions, it is the island’s only private property. By a very skillful trick, the property was exempt from the French fortune tax; Claude Miller claims it was purchased for professional purposes. Indeed, indicted by civil, criminal and administrative courts, he explained that he purchased the property for his real estate brokerage business, with the intent to resell it. And during the 25 years he owned the property, the mansion was indeed for sale, but at a price three times higher than its actual value. A clear message to potential buyers: “Keep going, there’s nothing to see here.”
Claude Muller was also involved in several scams and scams at Cannes and Antibes. Real estate developers don’t always manage to escape justice.
Indeed, on December 8, 1992, he was indicted on charges of forgery and fraud. Again with his partner in crime Baudouin Dunand, he conned the head of the Qatari government of 13 million francs for the construction price of his property. Claude Muller was imprisoned in Grasse prison, where he stayed three months before being released on trial.
My research leads to an unwanted Russian businessman, Arcadi Gaydamak, involved in arms trafficking in the Angolagate and Clearstream cases, and being summoned in a fraud case related to Claude Muller.
This passion for real estate is likely to be passed on to the next generation of the Muller Family as Alexis Muller Pellerin, Claude Muller’s grandson, has also become a real estate developer. The young man aspired to big projects and especially in terms of investment. We hope that the name of this future major player in the real estate market will not be associated with dirty stories about money and tax evasion, and hope that greed will not spoil his intentions, as it used to with his grandfather.