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Deep dive into the secretive art world and explore how some of the world's masterpieces are caught up in a gigantic alleged fraud feud: The Bouvier Affair.
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00:01International organized crime has no natural predator.
00:06Crime syndicates are expanding and forging alliances across the globe.
00:14As law enforcement struggle to stop them,
00:18up to 5% of the global economy is now in criminal hands.
00:23I'm Paul Radu and for the past 20 years I have investigated
00:27international organized crime in the tune of 400 billion.
00:31And this is a very, very small slice of what's really going on.
00:36I think there are some people, let's go, let's go.
00:40In this series I'm working with a team of reporters around the world
00:44Are you angry with yourself for being part of this?
00:48To discover how a generation of international gangs are redrawing the criminal map.
01:00When investigating the criminal underworld,
01:03you wouldn't expect to start your journey somewhere like this.
01:08But I'm meeting Rob Sheffield, the son of a baron,
01:11to get an insider's view on how the art world's been hit
01:14by alleged multi-million pound frauds.
01:18Very impressive.
01:21Welcome, Sid. Welcome to North Yorkshire.
01:24God, it's huge.
01:26Yeah.
01:28What's this?
01:29This is Michelle Abels. This is great.
01:31She's made it quite sculptural.
01:32Neon light.
01:33Then you can see there's a man's penis.
01:35And it's just like, it's also sort of looking, riffing off Instagram
01:38and the social...
01:39Yeah, it's a verified chick.
01:40Yeah, yeah.
01:42Another work.
01:44Yuri Paterson.
01:45I've got to turn this on, actually it's got a sound.
01:50Oh, I see.
01:51Yeah.
01:52Why have you put it here?
01:54I'm running out of space.
01:58Rob worked in the auction house Christie's for five years
02:01when a financial boom hit the contemporary art world.
02:05He has a unique view on how an industry now worth $64 billion a year
02:10is attracting a new type of criminal.
02:12So what was it like working during the boom of the art market?
02:15Yeah.
02:15It was like a football team which just kept on winning.
02:17But everyone was winning.
02:18Every football team was winning in the entire Premier League.
02:21It was just a huge party with the richest people in the world.
02:24Love drugs?
02:25Yeah, there was plenty of drugs, plenty of booze
02:28and huge sums of cash being exchanged.
02:30It had this intense, mad energy, like almost fever pitch.
02:35And I think everyone in some way kind of lost their heads,
02:38including myself.
02:39And it just, for me, drifted away from what art should be
02:43and can be about.
02:44And it became this sort of circus of wealth and power
02:47and greed and status.
02:49Is there a lot of ego involved then in the art world?
02:52Huge.
02:53I used to call them, a lot of my friends, they art bros.
02:56And it was just like cocksure, very arrogant.
03:00I feel that culture has obviously opened the door to a criminal mindset.
03:04It's too easy for people to break the rules because there aren't any rules to break.
03:08That's exactly why we're getting all these instances like these huge legal cases now.
03:13The art world has been hit by a new breed of opportunist criminal.
03:17And there is one who sent shockwaves through the industry.
03:2133-year-old jet-setting art bro, Inigo Philbrick, was arrested in 2020 for conning clients and friends
03:28out of over $20 million before disappearing off the face of the earth.
03:33His audacious alleged scams include selling the same share in a work of art to multiple unwitting clients
03:40and securing million-pound loans using artworks he didn't own as collateral.
03:45If you look at Inigo Philbrick, he's not the cause of the disease, but he is a symptom of the
03:50disease.
03:51Someone who came in very young, saw there was quick money to be made, found it irresistible, got in over
03:58his head.
04:01Dishonesty is rife within the industry.
04:07Rob saw Inigo's meteoric rise.
04:10Starting as an intern, within eight years Inigo owned galleries in London and Miami
04:16and was spending millions in the contemporary art market.
04:20How do you know Inigo Philbrick?
04:23Straight in there, Ori.
04:27When you have an auction, all the big dogs are at the front.
04:30And Inigo was like, within a couple of years, a couple of rows back, and everyone was a bit like,
04:35who is this guy, you know?
04:36Also, his paddle was going up, you know, he was doing deals.
04:39The money was there.
04:40It was strange, but no one really questioned it.
04:43He had this swagger.
04:45If it took me seriously, definitely arrogant is a word I would use.
04:49And I felt really vindicated actually when Inigo got exposed, because I was like,
04:53well, yeah, actually, you know, you were laughing at me then, but I'm the one laughing now.
04:57And I feel like, you know, fuck, so maybe I was right to be a bit naive and a bit
05:01idealistic.
05:02And that's what the art world's about.
05:03So, you know, they can fucking jog on.
05:07How many Inigos do you think there are?
05:09Fucking loads.
05:10It's a shady place.
05:12Just imagine a world where there is no regulation, and if you just bend the rule here,
05:18you can make a little bit more money.
05:19And the worst thing that happens, you might lose a client.
05:21It's a perfect equation for corruption.
05:29That corruption has hit the historic home of the art world, London's Mayfair.
05:35This was Inigo's stomping ground.
05:38I'm on my way to meet Chris Maranello, who's been dubbed the Sherlock Holmes of the art world.
05:43He started a company called Art Recover International, and they retrieve lost and looted artworks from around the world.
05:53Why is the art world so prone to financial crime?
05:57It's money.
05:59I mean, if you look around you, it's all about the money.
06:02It's about the Lamborghinis and the Ferraris and the 200,000-pound watches and the incredible Andy Warhol paintings.
06:10And they read about it, and they hear about the money that's being generated from the sale of these objects,
06:17and they all want a part of it.
06:21Mr. Philbrick was not the first one to do this type of fraud.
06:25What Inigo's fame infamy has come from is the Instagram age, where art advisers are using social media to buy
06:36and sell works of art.
06:38So would you say that Instagram and social media has helped facilitate crime?
06:41Oh, absolutely. Inigo's been traveling to exotic locations, dealing in some very high-end works of art, the fabulous parties,
06:52fabulous events, private jets.
06:54And all of this is done to create some sort of an image of infallibility, so that people feel comfortable
07:03in spending 50 or 70 million with him.
07:07Do you think Inigo's behavior is rare in the art world?
07:09You're asking the wrong person, because most people would say, yes, it's shocking, but I see this every day.
07:15Yeah.
07:16I mean, I can give you a dozen Inigos.
07:20Actually, this is where Inigo's gallery was.
07:23Oh, I see, available.
07:24It's available if you want to take a space.
07:28Inigo was a big player in the auction houses.
07:32For hundreds of years, they've operated a code of honor based on trust.
07:37Buyers and sellers are allowed to remain anonymous, and sales are also often done through intermediaries and shell companies.
07:45There's little public transparency about the finances behind each sale.
07:51Whilst none of this is illegal, it can provide fertile ground for criminals.
07:57The art market is a highly unregulated market.
08:01The auction houses themselves are ultimately banks.
08:06The amount of money that flow through the auction houses are just staggering, are huge.
08:12It's an area that can't really be thoroughly investigated by law enforcement because of the lack of knowledge and because
08:20of the lack of access to information.
08:21In the art world, there's almost no concept of know your customer, like in the banking world.
08:27And we've seen that the banking world is so riddled with, you know, organized crime and corruption, despite the AYC
08:33and this type of policies.
08:35When Inigo's alleged frauds unraveled, he suddenly disappeared.
08:40But in June 2020, the FBI picked him up in his Hawaiian swimming trunks on the South Pacific Island of
08:47Vanuatu.
08:49He was extradited and charged with fraud and identity theft.
08:53He is currently awaiting trial and denies the charges.
08:59A lot of people might look at art fraud as a victimless crime.
09:03Rich people stealing off rich people who hardly notice the gap in their bank account.
09:07But let's not forget the people behind the art, which is now seen to many as a financial asset ripe
09:13for exploitation.
09:16So, I'm about to meet Jake Chapman, who's a very successful artist.
09:19It's going to be interesting to hear from an artist's perspective about the art boom and the criminality that's attracted.
09:32Hi, how are you?
09:34Come in, come in, come in.
09:35Thank you very much.
09:37So, this is Hell.
09:38Well, this is a piece that comes from the Hell series.
09:41It's not Hell itself, which is a kind of like an inverse death camp where the Nazis get put back
09:48into their own machine, industrial genocide.
09:51Here, they're having to give up their teddy bears.
09:55You can see them all crying and being very upset about doing that, so...
09:58What have you got going on here?
10:01These are bronze bomb vests.
10:04Oh, my God.
10:06Fucking hell.
10:06Yeah, exactly.
10:07They're supposed to be sort of memorials to immortality.
10:10Would you sell an individual one of these?
10:13Would you want to buy it?
10:14Yeah, how much would it cost?
10:15A lot.
10:16When you were selling the Hellscape thing, like, how much would that go for?
10:21The first one, that's sold for 500,000.
10:24The next one's sold for, like, 5 million.
10:27The idea of making money from art, I don't think it really occurred to anyone for a long time.
10:32I still find it sort of quite a strange sort of collision between wanting to do something and being paid
10:38for it.
10:39Was it strange seeing all these billionaires and bankers appearing in a market they hadn't been around before?
10:44Yeah, I mean, I remember seeing investment bankers or speculators or stock brokers, you know, writing on the wall next
10:52to the bit of art they'd bought that I'd bought this and signing it.
10:55There was a kind of a delirium about, you know, the amount of money that these people were injecting into
11:01it.
11:01Why was this sudden interest in art?
11:04Money. Art is the preeminent capitalist object more than anything because it has no utilitarian value.
11:10And so, therefore, it only has speculative value.
11:13So anyone who kind of thinks that it's somehow insulting to art that it gets collided with money is actually
11:19deceitful.
11:21Because they actually treat it as though it's a theology, you know, but it's actually the theology of pure money.
11:26So art shouldn't be romanticised?
11:28No.
11:29How do you feel about the criminality, then, that's kind of rife in the art market?
11:33I'm all for it.
11:34No, I mean, I don't see any need for art to be defended from the people who speculate on it.
11:40Because I think in some senses, part of what's interesting about art is that it extorts value in some ways.
11:46You can't produce an equivalence for why one work of art is worth something and one's not.
11:53This arbitrary nature of price is at the heart of what has been called the art world's greatest scandal, the
11:59Bouvier Affair.
12:01Over ten years, Swiss businessman Yves Bouvier sold 38 of the world's masterpieces, including a Da Vinci now worth over
12:10$450 million, to the owner of AS Monaco Football Club, Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovyev.
12:18This shopping spree added up to $2 billion.
12:22In 2015, Rybolovyev alleged that Bouvier had overcharged him.
12:27He claimed they'd agreed commission fees of $40 million.
12:32Bouvier had taken $1 billion.
12:36Bouvier was arrested and a titanic battle has played out in international courts ever since, from Europe to Asia and
12:44even the US.
12:46Many have called the Bouvier Affair a watershed moment in the much needed push for regulation in the art world.
12:59I've come to Geneva, where nearly 20% of the population are millionaires.
13:04I've come across a woman called Sixteen Crutchfield, which basically sounds like a Bond villain, but she's agreed to take
13:11me out on her boat, which is equally Bond.
13:15She's also been dubbed Bouvier's secret weapon.
13:20Sixteen!
13:22Hello!
13:24How are you?
13:25I'm good, how are you doing?
13:26Good, thank you.
13:26It's really hot, isn't it?
13:27Come on in.
13:32An expert in fine art, Sixteen worked with Bouvier as he pioneered selling to the highly lucrative Russian market.
13:38That's all United Nations.
13:40Oh, yeah.
13:40That big house at the top there of that big lawn is the Rothschild's Friday house.
13:48Their 2004 Moscow Art Fair raised Bouvier's profile with wealthy oligarchs like Dimitri Vybalovyev.
13:57Were you involved in any of the deals with Dimitri?
14:00Not the financial aspect of things, but I knew, sometimes I knew some of the paintings that were being offered,
14:07but I never presented a work to Dimitri or anything like that.
14:12It's quite an impressive collection.
14:13It is. To me, probably, it's the number one collection in the world, private collection in the world at the
14:19moment.
14:20And that's thanks to Yves only.
14:22Why have you been called Bouvier's secret weapon?
14:27I don't know.
14:29I've been in the art world 35 years, basically, and I've been lucky to be at the top all the
14:34time.
14:34Whatever he was accused of is totally erroneous.
14:37I mean, every art dealer, and I can name them, but I won't, but I, you know, they all try
14:43and buy cheap or even rip someone off to get the piece cheap and then sell it as expensive as
14:48you can.
14:50And that's, that's just the name of commerce.
14:53So how do you feel about all the court cases against him?
14:56He's been brought out in the media as being the worst gangster ever.
15:00He's lost a lot of friends. He lost family business. He's lost, basically, the joy of living. He started smoking
15:06again.
15:07The advice that I would give Yves is to continue living and forget about it if he can, but because
15:12Dimitri's not going to lie down, that's for sure.
15:1816 is adamant Bouvier's billion-dollar gains aren't evidence of crime, but standard procedure in an unregulated world where profit
15:25is king.
15:27But some of Bouvier's mark-ups were extortionate. He bought a Rothko for $80 million and sold it to Ryboloviev
15:35for $140 million.
15:37Prices were going up in the tens of millions from one day to the next.
15:42Like many of the super rich, Ryboloviev is super media shy, but he's allowed his Swiss lawyer Sundrine to tell
15:49me about the alleged $1 billion fraud.
15:52Lots of books on art.
15:54Meant to impress.
15:56So, what was our established business relationship?
16:00Dimitri Ryboloviev entrusted Bouvier to be his agents, meaning that Bouvier would work on behalf of Dimitri Ryboloviev to find
16:10the best artworks at the best price.
16:13And against the services, he would be remunerated at 2% on the purchase price of any transaction.
16:19And that would make out of a 2 billion art collection, $40 million, which is quite a substantial amount.
16:28But obviously it wasn't enough for Bouvier because in the end he took an additional 1 billion mark-up over
16:35this 2 billion art collection.
16:37So, when did things begin to turn sour with Yves?
16:40First, there were several unsuccessful attempts to sell some of the artworks that Bouvier had acquired.
16:47When Bouvier had pretended these were super good opportunities and investments.
16:54But then it all came to a point when Dimitri Ryboloviev met, by chance, a very prominent New York art
17:02dealer.
17:02He knew one of the paintings that Dimitri had bought.
17:05And he mentioned that he had sold it for about 90 plus million.
17:10And that's when Dimitri realised something went wrong because he had bought it for 118 million.
17:17And then he realised the full scope of what had happened over 10 years.
17:21And how did Dimitri feel when he found out?
17:23Just imagine, you realise that you've been cheated over 10 years by the very person you entrusted to defend your
17:34interests.
17:35Someone who would help you navigate the art market to find the best possible deals.
17:41Obviously, I mean, deception, surprise.
17:44Bouvier was essentially known for being a fine art transport and storage guy.
17:50And so he had a lot of insider information.
17:55But obviously the people who entrusted him with the artworks of the freeport didn't necessarily want him to use that
18:01information.
18:02So confidentiality was really, really key.
18:06Bouvier pioneered the use of freeports in the art world.
18:10These secretive armoured warehouses completely revolutionised the way the art market works.
18:20Well, the Singapore Freeport is an ultra-secure, high-tech facility to house works such as art pieces, precious metal,
18:31jewellery, investment grade wines, as well as other precious collectibles.
18:38Mr. Bouvier actually purchased this beautiful sculpture, created and designed by Israeli artists by the name of Ron Arat.
18:45And it comes at a price tag of 5 million Singapore dollars.
18:50In this building, we do not deploy water sprinkler.
18:54We actually deploy nitrogen suppression system.
18:57It reduces the oxygen in the air to about 12-13%, so it is not able to support any naked
19:03flames.
19:03Works of art and water is a definite no-no.
19:08This corridor has a very special lighting effect.
19:11Mr. Bouvier works very closely with the lighting designer, Johanna Gawender, to give this corridor a very sophisticated look.
19:20Having blue lightings, it also makes this building a little bit more sci-fi.
19:26It's estimated that 80% of the world's art is in storage facilities, hidden away from the public eye.
19:35Freeports are an attractive prospect.
19:37You don't have to pay tax on your art.
19:39You can throw gallery openings in your own storage space,
19:42and arrive straight off your private jet without entering the country.
19:48With the blessing of one of the collectors,
19:52they have agreed to allow us to show you one of the galleries that is with some Chinese ink paintings.
20:00There's a total of 24 showrooms that can be converted into a proper gallery space.
20:08When Mr. Bouvier comes to this room, he will have his own private office,
20:12where he will house his guests or even treat them to a bottle of good wine or champagne.
20:18Mr. Yves Bouvier, he is really committed to this building.
20:22He is the one that selects all the designer lightings,
20:26what kind of artwork or sculptures to be displayed,
20:28down to the individual safety boxes.
20:31He needs to make sure that the qualities are good before he allows the purchase of it.
20:35We also have a sister facility in Luxembourg,
20:38built by the same team under the supervision of Mr. Yves Bouvier personally.
20:42Mr. Yves Bouvier is the king of the freeports.
20:51Freeports aren't illegal, but are definitely controversial.
20:55Since the mid-90s, stolen antiquities and art,
20:59some looted from war zones like Syria and Libya,
21:02have been found at Geneva Freeport,
21:04which Bouvier used to be a major shareholder of.
21:08Yves Bouvier had this great idea that this is a storage facility
21:13that's not covered by tax jurisdiction.
21:16So freeports are really some of the greatest enablers when it comes to tax evasion.
21:24So freeports allowed for the art object to be dealt with, you know,
21:30in a way that it didn't move across borders.
21:33It was always in transit.
21:34And at the same time, it allows for the owner to be unknown
21:38of very valuable, you know, art from all over the world.
21:42When we looked at what we dubbed the laundromats,
21:47these systems that allowed organized crime to invest money in a hidden way,
21:53we're seeing that there are lots of art purchases,
21:57from paintings to statues.
21:59So it's kind of a double layer, where you have financial flows that are completely hidden,
22:05and then the art allowing you to move large, large amounts of money in a secretive way.
22:15The king of freeports himself has agreed to meet with me and tell his side of the story for the
22:20very first time.
22:23So I've been told to meet Eve here. I'm just waiting for him.
22:26I'm going to walk through the vineyard, and we're going to lunch.
22:29OK, I've just seen him. He's on a scooter.
22:39I love your scooter.
22:42Hi.
22:42Hi, Eve. It's so nice to meet you.
22:44How are you?
22:44Oh, it's the spud.
22:44Yes.
22:45Thank you so much for meeting with me.
22:47Pleasure.
22:48So we're going to go through the vineyard?
22:50Yes.
22:50Where are you going to put your scooter?
22:52Just leave it.
22:53Wouldn't someone not steal it?
22:54No.
22:56We're in Geneva.
22:58So you've sold some of the most impressive works in history. How's this all come about?
23:22Is it normal for someone to be involved in both the storage
23:26and the dealing of art?
23:27Do you use the information that you gain in the dealing?
23:46So the all-important question, how did you meet Dimitri?
24:13So how did you become his art dealer?
24:16So how did you become his art dealer?
24:30So far, so good.
24:32But I was wondering how Bouvier is going to defend his ramping up of prices by tens of millions
24:37from one day to the next.
24:39And the fact he sent Reubaloviev emails where he created fictional sellers who won't drop their price
24:45and want payment immediately, when he was in fact the seller himself.
24:50So is it legitimate to buy artwork for one price and then dramatically increase the price of it the next
24:55day?
24:56For example, you bought the Rothko for 80 million and you sold it for 140?
25:01Yes.
25:06So how about these emails where you're saying the seller won't go below 200 but you're in fact that seller?
25:28These emails didn't have any impact on the amount of price, it was just to not be able to renegotiate.
25:34I'm contractually the seller.
25:37That the painting, I'm already the owner, that the seller, that the seller, that the seller,
25:41that the seller, I'm the seller and I have an art that I can sell.
25:46Obviously one of the accusations that Dimitri had is that you agreed to 2% commission.
25:50Is that not true?
26:03So how did it all go wrong?
26:06So how did it all go wrong?
26:15According to court documents, Dimitri's wife Elena filed for divorce after becoming tired of his infidelity.
26:23She accused Dimitri of transferring assets to overseas trusts to keep them out of her reach.
26:29This included his rapidly increasing art collection, a $95 million mansion bought from President Trump,
26:37and a private Greek island.
26:41At this point, his wife wanted to take assets that nobody knew how much he paid and bought art works.
26:50In the middle, he bought a paper and refused to pay me the salary of the paper.
26:55So I went to Monaco, to his request, to pay my $50 million that he owed me.
27:04So I went to Monaco, and I passed the entrance door of The Belle Époque.
27:29After this theatrical ambush, Eve was charged with fraud and money laundering.
27:34Dimitri then issued court orders freezing Eve's assets across the globe.
27:39It was a whole strategy.
27:41First, it started by Monaco to make me put in prison.
27:46Then it was Singapore to take my activities, my porte-franc.
27:52And Hong Kong to take my society.
28:06So how much have you spent on lawyers over the last few years?
28:09Oh, I think about $40 million.
28:14Will you ever bow down to Dimitri?
28:27So you could say that Eve's just a very clever businessman
28:32who took advantage of a market that allows it.
28:36I can't imagine that Dimitri is this naive oligarch
28:39that he's painting himself out to be.
28:41I don't know if naive and oligarch can go in the same sentence.
28:44Eve talks all the big fighting talk,
28:46but he's basically up against a Russian oligarch
28:50and that must be pretty terrifying.
28:58Eve claims it's all a massive operation
29:01so that Dimitri pays his ex-wife less money in a divorce settlement.
29:05That's completely nonsense and just shows again
29:08how vivid Eve Bouvia's imagination is.
29:11As I said, this matter spans a period over ten years,
29:15so it's completely unrelated to divorce,
29:19which was peacefully settled in 2015.
29:23Eve says that 2% commission wouldn't even pay for storage alone,
29:27so that that would never have been the case.
29:30Yeah, that has been his contention,
29:31which is absolutely unsupported.
29:34It's a complete fantasy.
29:35So were there any contracts ever signed between them
29:38at the beginning of the relationship?
29:39It's a complex question because there were some contracts,
29:43but in terms of the overall relationship that they had,
29:47it is evidenced by the numerous emails and exchanges they had.
29:52Bouviev faces an enemy who has very deep pockets.
29:57Riboloviev sold his share in Russia's biggest fertiliser company
30:00for billions of dollars and quickly got his money out of the country.
30:06Dmitri Riboloviev comes from the bloody fog of the 90s in Russia,
30:12but he was one of those guys who managed to rise and to actually expand from Russia.
30:19A lot of the investments are done abroad because in Russia,
30:23their mindset is that there's always going to be someone who wants to take from them,
30:29and they want the safety of the Western societies.
30:32By buying the football team in Monaco, just like in the case of art,
30:38football gives them access.
30:40They get recognition from the general public.
30:43You're able to put your foot strongly into a society.
30:49The way Dmitri used his football team to curry favour with the Principality's elite
30:54radically changed his battle with Bouviev.
31:06I've flown to Dimitri's Kingdom, the tax evasion theme park of Monaco.
31:12There seems to be police everywhere.
31:15I've been stopped twice, so having to shoot an iPhone,
31:19and hopefully they don't have any problem with that.
31:24So I walked past the Bellapop earlier.
31:26I was a bit nervous about getting the big camera out,
31:29so I posed as an influencer.
31:34After Dmitri had settled here,
31:36he quickly engaged in an orchestrated and opulent gifting campaign
31:40aimed at politicians and police officers.
31:44These gifts included helicopter rides, holidays,
31:48really expensive wine and tickets to AS Monaco games.
31:53And when his battle with Bouvier erupted,
31:56he called in his favours.
31:58This led to a massive scandal dubbed Monacogate.
32:04So I'm about to meet Gerard Devey, who is a journalist for Le Monde.
32:08He broke the story of Monacogate.
32:11At the heart of this story was a DVD
32:14that exposed some pretty embarrassing texts for Dmitri.
32:19On savait que Dmitri Ribovlev en voulait à Yves Bouvier.
32:24J'ai eu la chance de tomber, en fait, sur un DVD-ROM,
32:29dans lequel il y avait tous les échanges de messages et de SMS et de mails
32:35entre l'avocate de monsieur Ribovlev,
32:39qui s'appelait Tetiana Berchedda,
32:41et la justice, la police, à Monaco.
32:44Et ces échanges prouvaient qu'il y avait une sorte de corruption,
32:50de trafic d'influence entre le pouvoir de Monaco
32:53et le pouvoir Ribovlev.
32:55So what were these texts of the police?
32:58Concrètement, Tetiana Berchedda
33:00a relation avec la police judiciaire,
33:03mais aussi monsieur Narmino.
33:05Monsieur Narmino, c'est en quelque sorte
33:07le ministre de la justice de Monaco.
33:09C'est lui qui dirige toute la police, et donc la justice aussi.
33:12Elle a invité monsieur Narmino
33:14dans le superbe chalet que monsieur Ribovlev a à Statt.
33:19On voit sur le message,
33:20venez à tel endroit pour que l'hélicoptère de monsieur Ribovlev vous emmène.
33:24Les policiers, le directeur des services judiciaires,
33:27tous ces gens-là, puisqu'ils recevaient les cadeaux.
33:29C'était deux policiers qui étaient à la tête de la police judiciaire,
33:33donc ceux qui font toutes les enquêtes les plus sensibles.
33:35Ils étaient en relation directe avec Tetiana Berchedda.
33:38Mais ils ont vraiment monté ensemble l'arrestation de monsieur Bouvier.
33:42C'est-à-dire qu'ils ont organisé une sorte d'embuscade.
33:46Ils ont fait venir monsieur Bouvier sous un faux prétexte,
33:50et là, il y a eu neuf policiers qui l'ont arrêté au moment où il a mis les pieds
33:54à Monaco.
33:55Et on a vu, en analysant tous les SMS, tous les mails, que tout était calé.
34:00Il y avait un plan bas, un plan A, puis ensuite il y a eu un plan B.
34:03Le prince Albert a été très fâché,
34:07et donc il a obligé son ministre de la Justice à démissionner le jour où l'article est paru.
34:14Dimitri, avec l'aide de ses loyers, Tetiana,
34:17a réussi à acheter la loyalties de la justice de Monaco et de la force de la police.
34:22Il a ensuite utilisé ce pouvoir pour obtenir Bouvier arresté.
34:27Tetiana dit qu'elle était dans la loi.
34:29Qu'est-ce que c'est le cas contre Dimitri à Monaco ?
34:33Monsieur Riboloblev et les policiers et la justice sont toujours sous le coup d'investigations
34:40pour corruption, trafics d'influence.
34:43Et monsieur Riboloblev est toujours poursuivi par la justice de Monégas.
34:46C'est devenu un grand embarrassment pour le prince et Monaco itself.
34:55Le court case n'a pas été décide,
34:57mais certains de les personnes qui ont été décides de Monaco ont dû resign.
35:01Donc, ce n'est pas l'air bien.
35:03En December 2019,
35:05le Monaco juge threw out tous les charges contre Steve Bouvier.
35:09Qu'est-ce que Dimitri's réponse
35:11à les charges et les allegations faites contre Monaco-Gate ?
35:16Il a fortement dénité de ces accusations,
35:20qui sont complètement falses.
35:22Ils sont maintenant examinés par la justice de Monaco.
35:25Nous nous attendons à être vindicés dans la courte.
35:29Le chef de Monaco-Gateau a envoyé un texte à Dimitri,
35:32qui dit, « Je vous assure de votre loyauté. »
35:35Et puis, il y a un texte.
35:37« Juste avant Yves' arrest,
35:39Tatiana a été envoyé à la chef de la police-super-internet
35:41et de la tête de Monaco-Gateau.
35:43« Il va venir en mars 25 de february en la matinée.
35:46C'est certain.
35:47Plan A should remain in place. »
35:49« What would Dimitri's defence be said ? »
35:51« This is privileged information,
35:53which already is a problem,
35:55because in principle,
35:56all the information that the lawyer has
35:58about a case is privileged.
36:01Second, these text messages
36:03have shown relationship between
36:05lawyer and the Monaco authorities,
36:08and as such, they are not illegal.
36:11It's not illegal to discuss a case
36:13with the prosecutor or with the police.
36:15And what about the gifts to people
36:17in positions of power ? »
36:19« First, you have to wonder whether
36:21there were big gifts given.
36:24That's the first question.
36:25And second, you have to look into
36:29what Monaco would say about this.
36:31I can't comment as a Swiss lawyer.
36:33But the idea that there would
36:36have been corruption action
36:38on the part of our client
36:40is strongly denied,
36:42because it just simply is not the case.
36:52Dimitri was willing to use dirty tactics
36:54in his fight with Eve.
36:55But it seems Eve isn't so squeaky clean himself.
36:59There are many other accusations
37:01during the rounds.
37:02« Eve Bivio has told me his side of the story,
37:04but there are all these other things
37:06that Eve's been accused of.
37:08It's not just court cases with Dimitri.
37:10He's been accused by the Swiss authorities
37:13of evading taxes of up to $360 million.
37:17He's also been accused of selling stolen Picassos.
37:21In 2015, Eve faced charges of hiding the fact
37:25that two Picasso paintings sold to Dimitri
37:28were stolen from Picasso's stepdaughter.
37:31She claimed the paintings were for Bouvier
37:33to store, not sell.
37:35The case is ongoing.
37:37And then we find that he's also been accused
37:42of selling forgeries by the infamous Wolfgang Beltracchi.
37:46His selling of a fake by Wolfgang Beltracchi
37:49is another curious episode in Eve's career.
37:52He forged over 1,000 paintings,
37:55fooled experts across the globe,
37:56and there are hundreds of his work
37:58still said to be in circulation.
38:01So this is shaping my opinion a bit differently
38:04because there's obviously other stuff going on,
38:08not just what he's telling me.
38:18I've come to Paris to meet Bouvier one last time,
38:22and ask him about these other court cases
38:24he's been fighting.
38:26Romantic walk.
38:27It's very romantic walk, Eve.
38:29Lovely day for it.
38:31So I read there's been recent charges
38:34of tax evasion in Switzerland.
38:49So the case of the stolen Picasso, was that also Dimitri's work?
39:19And how about the accusations of selling the forgeries by Wolfgang Beltracchi?
39:23Well, what I'm going to explain is that my laboratory
39:27has discovered the false facts of Mr. Beltracchi.
39:31So I'm victim myself.
39:34I bought three works of art
39:36to professionals.
39:38I had to pay these works of art.
39:41Of course, when the problems came with Mr. Ribolovlef,
39:45there was a big media campaign made by the communicants of Mr. Ribolovlef
39:50to join Mr. Beltracchi as if I was a complice.
39:55So it's a new one-coup from the Russian.
39:58So how many court cases have you won?
40:01So, I won in Monaco.
40:03I won in Singapore.
40:06I won in Hong Kong.
40:08I won in Luxembourg.
40:11I won in Liechtenstein.
40:14And in the United States, after the pre-enquête,
40:17they decided not to continue.
40:20So a lot.
40:21Yes.
40:22So what has it felt like to be accused of being a criminal
40:25and had your name smeared in all the media around the world?
40:41In your feud with Dimitri, have you ever felt scared?
40:45When I have people who follow me and who pressure me,
40:49when I have my lawyers who are hacking,
40:51when I know that I have former FBI agents who work against me,
40:56when I know that I have several teams of lawyers who work against me,
41:01we always worry about it,
41:03but I'm not afraid.
41:04I'm of nature to be afraid of anyone.
41:06If the judicial combat will stop,
41:08we will continue the other fight.
41:12Bouvier's side gave us these images,
41:14which apparently show people following him.
41:17They claim this as evidence that Dimitri is using
41:19extrajudicial tactics of intimidation.
41:23So Yves claims that he's been followed and has had phones hacked.
41:29Well, that's his allegation.
41:31I don't have any knowledge of it,
41:33and so I don't know if he has many enemies which may do that.
41:38That's something that you have to ask him.
41:41Is it a personal vendetta at this point?
41:44Not at all.
41:45That's what Bouvier is trying to make out of this matter,
41:49and he's trying to make it very personal.
41:52Why has Yves won so many of his cases?
41:55He hasn't won any of these cases.
41:58That's what he pretends everywhere.
42:00There's never been a decision on the matter as such,
42:03and basically everything now on the merits of the dispute
42:08is to be dealt with in Switzerland.
42:17Yves still faces one feather court battle with Dimitri in Geneva.
42:22We walk to his Parisian gallery,
42:24from which he's now trying to stage his grand comeback into the art world.
42:30Here is my gallery.
42:32The biggest one on the road.
42:38Oh, wow. It's a big space.
42:40Yes.
42:42How long have you had it?
42:442013.
42:47With Le Louvre.
42:48Very close.
42:49Yes.
42:51So at least you're able to operate in this gallery as an art dealer.
42:54It's very difficult today,
42:56because today I'm blacklisted from all the sales houses,
43:00so to buy and to sell,
43:03so we operate with young artists for pleasure,
43:06but we're not in the same type of activity as before.
43:11They claim that the Bouvier Affair has been a watershed moment
43:14for pushing for regulation in the art world.
43:16The media, and especially the PR of Mr. Ribolloleuf,
43:21have created the Bouvier Affair.
43:23But what did Bouvier Affair?
43:25He sold the art works with a bill
43:28to someone who wanted to buy them.
43:30You can do all the regulations of the world
43:32if someone wants to buy an art work
43:34and someone wants to sell it.
43:36And he regrets.
43:36I have no regrets of having constituted this collection,
43:41of having sold these chefs-d'oeuvre.
43:42On the contrary, I'm very proud of it.
43:44The only thing,
43:45I regret not having seen the real personality of Mr. Ribolloleuf.
43:53In the end,
43:54it's a massive fight between a multimillionaire
43:57and a multibillionaire,
43:59both of whom feel persecuted.
44:01Despite one owning a gallery opposite the Louvre
44:04and the other owning a football team
44:07and an island
44:08and a real estate empire.
44:11We can't say who's right or wrong in this.
44:14But what the Bouvier Affair has exposed
44:16is how the art market's culture of greed,
44:19combined of its billions of dollars
44:20and total lack of stringent regulation,
44:23leaves it vulnerable to widespread exploitation.
44:27The problem is that the regulations
44:29that are already on the books are not being enforced.
44:33There just isn't enough funding for law enforcement,
44:38for prosecutors, for police officers
44:40to enforce the laws that apply to the art world.
44:44So do you think anything's actually going to change
44:46in the art world?
44:47I keep warning the art market
44:49that if they don't police themselves,
44:51they're going to have it imposed on them.
44:52They're going to find the government
44:54breathing down their necks.
44:56Wouldn't that put you out of a job?
44:58I don't believe I'll ever be put out of a job.
45:00There are always going to be people stealing art.
45:03There's always going to be people committing fraud
45:05against others in the art world.
45:07I think that there's a lot more work in the future.
45:12With a steady trickle of new rules
45:14around client identity and money laundering
45:16now coming into force,
45:18it remains to be seen whether the art world
45:20will reign on as the most secretive market on earth.