Posted on November 17, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. by Arthur Montagne
Long presented as the favorite in the takeover of ASSE, Norodom Ravichak was finally forced to give up his project, accused of having provided false documents. Frustrated at not having been able to successfully complete his candidacy, the Prince of Cambodia comes out of silence and lets go of his truths in this matter.
The ASSE sale process is running its course and has even seen an acceleration in recent days. KPMG , an audit firm mandated to scrutinize the applications, has effectively closed the stage of receiving offers for ten days. It's hard to know which projects are underway, but everything should be revealed on November 23, when KPMG will present to Roland Romeyer and Bernardo Caïazzo offers deemed serious. One thing is certain, however, Norodom Ravichak will not be the next owner of the ASSE . And for good reason, the Prince of Cambodia “has provided a financial guarantee document of 100 million euros from a major international bank which turns out to be a forgery. A situation which pushed the Greens to initiate legal proceedings against the Cambodian prince who will therefore not buy ASSE. But while he had displayed through a press release “his astonishment at the accusations brought against him”, Norodom Ravichak decided to come out of the silence in an interview with L'Equipe.
Ravichak sets things straight
The Prince of Cambodia has thus confirmed that he is indeed a candidate for the takeover of ASSE . But contrary to what has been announced, he is not a billionaire. His project was based, not on its own funds, but on those of Chinese investors. “I laughed a lot when I discovered that I was a billionaire prince. The truth is, I make a good living. I am a privileged person, not a billionaire, but I have wealthy Chinese friends who support me. They have been doing business with my family for ten years and they know my love for football. However, they want to enter Europe by this means ”, assures Norodom Ravichak before confirming having sent two different offers. “The first, of 30M €, in June. Refused. Then nothing. The second, of € 60M, plus € 40M to be injected immediately into the club's assets, subject to the study of the data room (the room containing all the club's accounting data). The date of the second offer? Right after sending Deutsche Bank's € 100 million bank guarantee (September 13), ”he adds. It is precisely this bank guarantee that precipitated the failure of this project, since this document turned out to be a forgery. However, the Prince of Cambodia ensures that he is not at the origin of this scam, and that he too was a victim: “During my first offer, I sent a letter of guarantee signed by the CEO of Soteria Capital, a fund reputable investment company from Hong Kong and whose parent company is Bank of Asia. Nari, my brother, and I are on the board. KPMG refused, on the grounds that the origin of the funds cannot be verified. I was amazed that he raised doubts when there had not yet been any remittances in France. And if that had been the case, Tracfin (the French intelligence service in charge of the fight against tax fraud) would have filtered the money. Although I was upset and felt ostracized, I contacted Master Carlos Bejarano. It was then agreed to call on Prolan Group SA, a financial structure based in Geneva, Switzerland, and which works with Deutsche Bank (…) I never issued this document nor met Philippe Soulié, the boss from Prolan, whom I called to account. ” But the damage is done. KPMG did not follow up on its offer given the use of false documents and Norodom Ravichak will therefore not be the future owner of the ASSE , while for a long time he seemed to be the bearer of the most ambitious project …