French businessman Michel Ohayon was indicted on Friday 4 April for bankruptcy, misuse of corporate assets and organised fraud. He is suspected of having embezzled more than €50m via the Camaïeu, Go Sport and Gap France chains, the Paris public prosecutor’s office said on Saturday, contacted by AFP and confirmed by the Belga news agency.

The investigators accuse Ohayon of having taken large sums from the coffers of these companies, without any clear economic justification, at a time when they were already in a strained financial situation. These movements of funds were allegedly concealed or justified by fictitious legal arrangements, said the public prosecutor.

For the public prosecutor, it is “established that in the two years following the takeover of the Camaïeu, Gap and Go Sport brands, these structures were subject to receivership proceedings due in particular to these suspicious cash movements.”

The entrepreneur, who has been placed under judicial supervision, is no longer allowed to manage or run a business and will have to post a €500,000 bond.

A contested takeover strategy

Ohayon had made a name for himself by taking over--via his holding company Financière Immobilière Bordelaise (FIB)--a number of ailing retailers. These included Gap France, Go Sport and, from summer 2020, the retail clothing chain Camaïeu. The latter escaped liquidation at the time, with the exception of its Belgian subsidiary--whose 25 shops and some 130 employees had ceased operations. In Luxembourg, too, In France, Camaïeu was finally liquidated in September 2022, followed shortly by the receivership of Gap France and .

The Camaïeu brand was taken over by the Celio group at the end of 2022. It made a discreet comeback in the summer of 2024, with the opening of several shops in France and Belgium. In Luxembourg, however, the former outlets remain closed and no reopening has been announced to date.

This article was originally published in .