A prime suspect behind Kim Kardashian’s 2016 Paris robbery has died before he could stand trial for the highly publicized crime.
Kardashian was staying at the Hôtel de Pourtalès to attend Paris Fashion Week when a group of men dressed as police officers entered her hotel room, tied her up, and held her at gunpoint. They stole an estimated $10 million in jewelry from the reality TV star. Marceau Baum-Gertner, 72, was responsible for finding a buyer for the stolen goods, The Daily Mail reported.
According to the Mail, Baum-Gertner died March 6, but officials had been in the dark about his death. He was due to stand trial on Monday along with 10 other men and at least one woman in their 60s and 70s deemed “grandpa robbers.”
Additional suspects include Didier “Blue Eyes” Dubreucq, 69, François “Big Guy” Delaporte, 61, and Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, among others.
The details of Baum-Gertner’s death are unknown, but he had been living in Paris and regularly reporting to police while he awaited trial, a source told the Mail.
“His name was on the defendants’ list for the trial, and he was very enthusiastic about clearing his name in court,” the source said.
However, Baum-Gertner had been receiving death threats from his gangland connections as the trial approached, the Mail reported. A source added that there was concern that he would “name names.”
A career criminal, known as Nez Râpé, or Rough Nose, Baum-Gertner has had multiple previous convictions for stolen goods, forgery, and robbery.
The French Justice Ministry called Baum-Gertner’s crimes “to the detriment of Ms Kim Kardashian,” the Mail reported.
Kardashian is reportedly scheduled to fly to Paris in May to give testimony as a key witness in the trial. During an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kardashian tearfully recounted that she thought that she would be raped and killed during the ordeal.
“Then [one of the armed men] duct tapes my face, my mouth, to get me to not yell or anything and then he grabs my legs and I wasn’t, I had no clothes on under [my robe] and he pulled me towards him at the front of the bed,” she said. “I thought, ‘Okay, this is the moment. They are going to rape me.”
“I fully mentally prepped myself, and then he didn’t, and he duct taped my legs together,” Kardashian added.
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