Paris is accustomed to spectacular and audacious robberies. Stylish jewellers in the heart of the French capital are attacked in broad daylight.
Criminals acquire almost admiring nicknames. The Gang of Postiches, active in the 1980s, specialised in fake wigs, beards and moustaches that gave them their name.
The notorious Pink Panthers got away with gems worth €80 million (Dh390.2m) in a raid on the Harry Winston jewellery shop in 2008.
When a Saudi prince’s convoy was ambushed on Sunday evening as it travelled from Paris to Le Bourget, an airport favoured by VIPs with private jets, the proceeds were relatively modest.
A gang of up to eight members escaped with €250,000 in banknotes stuffed inside a suitcase. But what the robbery lacked in terms of the haul, it made up for with drama and intrigue.
The victim was Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd Al Saud, 41, commonly described as the favourite son of the late King Fahd, who until recently was a minister of state and member of King Abdullah’s council of ministers.
The Saudi website riyadhconnect.com said he was relieved of his ministerial duties in April “upon his request”.
The robbery targeting Prince Abdulaziz was clinical, but without bloodshed.
When his entourage of a dozen vehicles left the plush George V hotel – owned by another Saudi prince, Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – off the Champs-Elysees, their movements were known to the gang.
It is a short drive of 18 kilometres from central Paris to Le Bourget, where one of the private jets at the prince’s disposal was waiting.
The convoy was brought to an abrupt halt at the city’s Porte de la Chapelle gate.
As the vehicles approached a ring road and A1 motorway, masked men in two BMWs with screened windows and no number plates struck.
The BMWs were used to block the leading vehicle, a Mercedes Viano that was slightly detached from the rest of the convoy, forcing the driver to stop. Also on board were a security officer and another official.
From the Mercedes, the robbers armed with handguns snatched the suitcase full of banknotes. No shots were fired and the ambush was over in little more than a minute.
The gang escaped with the Mercedes, which was later found burnt with one of the robbers’ BMWs in the village of Saint-Mesmes, 36 kilometres north-east of Paris. The fire destroyed any trace of fingerprints.
Rocco Contento, from the police union, told LCI Television that the hold-up was carried out by a “well-organised gang in a premeditated raid with knowledge of the route and timing of the convoy”.
A detective said the first indications were that the robbers were “quite expert” and fully aware that what they wanted was in the Mercedes.
Given the prince’s affluence, the robbers would have been disappointed with their haul. He has palaces in Saudi Arabia and substantial properties in Europe and the United States. The New York Times has said his wealth is “thought to be in billions”.
As the hunt for the attackers gets under way, attention was focused on how they were able to identify their target, his itinerary and his route.
As often occurs when a high-profile robbery is committed in France or neighbouring countries, early speculation suggested the possible involvement of career criminals from eastern Europe. Inevitably the Pink Panthers, originating in the Balkans and responsible for a string of smash-and-grabs in several countries, have been mentioned. But the Panthers typically aim for hauls worth millions of euros.
The Police said it was possible the prince was robbed by French gangsters with good inside information.
Le Monde asked: “Was he kept under surveillance or the victim of a leak from his entourage?”
It quoted a hotel concierge as saying: “Saudi princes travel a great deal, with their own staff, cooks, maids and bodyguards. They make little use of hotel staff.
“They are often suspicious and it is always difficult to predict the time of their arrival, as if they had no schedules.
“But it is easy to predict their departure, because most of the work then is to ensure that all the baggage is properly sent to the airport.”
The newspaper also reported that the presence of wealthy Arabs in central Paris was unlikely to go unnoticed. Intermediaries, often Lebanese or Egyptian, would visit them with “all sorts of propositions”, including jewellery, carpets and rugs or real estate.
It was not uncommon for a prosperous Saudi visitor to use cash to pay for expensive goods or lavish meals in top restaurants.
The police have become concerned about a spate of carjacking attacks on foreign visitors using luxury cars or showing other signs of wealth. The shopping habits of rich Arabs have been well documented in western media.
Another Saudi, a senior official from the sports ministry, was robbed of €200,000 in cash 14 months ago, when his car was forced to stop by bogus police officers on the motorway leading from Le Bourget into the capital.
Groups of Chinese tourists have also been mugged in and near Paris.
Such incidents led a committee representing 75 luxury goods companies, including Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior and Hermes, to warn that tourists were being deterred by the city’s growing reputation for insecurity.
Pickpockets are rampant in areas popular with tourists and on the underground railway system, and there have been many cases of people being robbed while using cash machines.
Conscious of the popularity of Paris and the French Riviera among foreigners, some of whom carry large amounts of cash, the French government has sent a message of regret about the latest robbery to King Abdullah.
A swift investigation, as discreet as possible, has been promised.
Le Monde said the crime could hardly have happened at a worse time.
On September 1, the French president, Francois Hollande, and major French arms makers are due to host Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Saudi Crown Prince, first deputy prime minister and defence minister.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
