Billionaire Killed Because of Comment
The Tragic Story of how Cecile Brossard shot and killed Billionaire Edouard Stern
We all love a good story. Bondage games, death, influential people, this is a story that received a lot of attention in France. There is a saying, whatever you do in secret will come out in the open. Edouard Stern’s secrets came out but, he paid the high price of losing his life. If he did not have an affair, he would not be dead.
First, let’s learn more about Edouard Stern
Edouard Stern was born on the 18th of October 1954 in Paris. He was the son of a very successful banker Antoine Stern. Antoine was the owner of a private investment house Banque Stern. His father comes from a long line of successful bankers that were established in the 19th century Frankfurt. Edouard was involved in the banking business from an early age. Not only did his father made a big name in the banking business but his mother Christiane Laroche was formerly married to the French journalist and politician Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber.
Edouard had the same passion for banking as his father, and his father was his role model. He graduated from business school in Paris with a degree in finance. In 1977, he joined his family’s private investment house. Then in 1980, Edouard revamped the bank and at 22 years had a vision that many people at that age can only dream of.
Edouard sold the bank and kept the copyright over his last name. The bank was sold in 1985, for 300 million francs. He did not waste any time; he bought a new bank. With many of his former clients supporting him, he built up a portfolio and made the bank profitable and sell it for 1.75 billion francs. Edouard was a good businessman, he worked hard and catch the attention of some wealthy and powerful people.
Broadening his horizons, he joined Lazard Freres as a managing partner in 1992. He had a vision to make the bank better and more accessible to young people. The CEO and other executives in the company did not share his vision for the business, and he left in 1997. After Lazard, he opened an Investment fund called the “Investment Real Returns”. He owned half of the enterprise and the other half belonged to one of Lazard Freres Holding Company “Eurazeo”. Determined to make his mark in the business world he bought shares in a London company Delta PLC. Delta PLC is an international engineering group, and in December 2003, Edouard was named the non-executive chairman of the company. A US company Valmont bought Delta PLC.
Edouard was part of a lawsuit in 2004, against a French company Rhodia accusing the company of false accounting and insider trading.
During Edouard’s career, he amassed a fortune of more than 1 billion dollars. It is said he acquired the money by being a good businessman. He revolutionized the banking style in France, by perfecting the art of engineering hostile takeovers. Although Edouard Stern was the 38th richest man in France, he seemed to be private and was not known to people in France and was a personal friend of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Edouard had a full love life. He married Beatrice David-Weill in 1983. Beatrice is the daughter of Michael David-Weill who owns Lazard Freres. The company that Edouard briefly worked for, Edouard had three children with Beatrice. He and Beatrice divorced in 1998. Edouard had a weird taste in sex and his escapades were known to family and friends. I think people with so much money and power can quickly get bored and try different things to get the excitement back in their lives.
After his divorce, he became involved with Julia Lemigova in 1997, Julia was a former Miss USSR. He had money and was easy to the eye some say he was the whole package. He had a son with Julia, who died as an infant under suspicious circumstances. The relationship that would ultimately seal his fate was with Cecile Brossard in 2000.
What should we know about Cecile Brossard?
Cecile had a very troubled childhood. She was only three years old when her parents divorced. After the divorce, her mother struggled with depression, she tried to kill herself with gas, and almost killed her two daughters as well. Her father had sex in front of his children, sexually abused Cecile and kept nude magazines all over the house. One of Cecile’s uncles also sexually abused her. He was never prosecuted and at age 17 Cecile was in a psychiatric hospital.
Cecile did not graduate high school. I have to say I pity the poor woman and have great sympathy for what she had to endure. Her whole life was a mess from the start. How is she supposed to make something of her life? She could not even depend on anyone. In my early posts, I have touched on how important healthy relationships between parents and children are.
As sad as Cecile childhood is, she is part of a huge group of people that went through the same circumstances. Cecile worked in a boutique and then as a waitress in Maxim’s restaurant in Paris.
At the age of 24, Cecile realized she is not going to make something of her life with doing what she was doing, and she starts to focus on older men that could provide for her.
Edouard and Cecile’s meeting
Edouard and Cecile met at a dinner party in Paris. She was 32 and he was 14 years her elder. They had instant chemistry. He was involved with Cecile for four years. The relationship between them was passionate and full of deceit. Cecile was a former prostitute and was happy to live a fairy tale life for the next four years. They went on expensive holidays and an African Safari. Cecile was in her element as she was part of a world that she always dreamed of. Edouard gave Cecile 1 million dollars as a gift. When their relationship hit their low points, it was as low as you can go and when they hit their high points, it was passionate and bordered on perverse.
The Fateful day Edouard Stern was killed
The evening of 28 February 2005, in his luxury apartment with a view of the Geneva Lake Leman, Eduard was engaged in an S&M session with Cecile. During the session, Edouard remarked that the 1 million dollars were a lot of money to pay for a prostitute. Edouard said that he wanted the one million dollars back. Edouard froze the check before Cecile withdraw the money. Since leaving that life behind and living the life of a wealthy woman Cecile took the remark as an insult. Knowing that Edouard kept a gun in his drawer next to the bed she took it and shot him.
According to the sources, Cecile first shot Edouard between the eyes while he was tied to a chair dressed in a full body latex outfit. Edouard manages to stand up, and Cecile shot him twice in his chest, just to make sure he is dead she shot him in the temple. Some sources claim that Cecile said Edouard was manipulative, she knows from experience that a relationship like that does not end well.
Cecile was dealt a bad life, and believe by having relationships with older men would turn her life around. After she cleaned the crime scene, she threw the gun into the lake and fled to Italy and then to Australia. She left Edouard on the chair with the suit on. She wanted to expose his scandalous life and shame his family. He was found the next day when a business associate became worried that he did not show up for a business meeting.
When the police arrested Cecile, she confessed to the murder and was convicted on the 18th of June 2009, she was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. The Swiss court ordered her to pay the children of Edouard one Swiss franc for moral damage. She begged for forgiveness and said that she did not intend to kill him. The lawyers of Edouard stated that she planned to kill him for financial gain and she is a sexual deviant. The jury felt that she was cynical and manipulative, she did not receive the maximum twenty-year jail sentence because of diminished responsibility. She could be freed in two years for good behavior serving four years on remand.
Ten days later she asked Edouard’s children for the money he promised her. She was released from jail on the 10th November 2010, where she only served eighteen months in prison. In 2013, Cecile opened up for the first time about the murder and how she felt. The moment she shot him she did not think and everything inside her just exploded. She decided to talk about Edouard and who he was. During the trial, his reputation was hurt, and it exposed his sexual relationship with her.
Cecile wrote a letter, and a television reporter read it out loud in public as she did not wish to be on television. She misses Edouard and life is not the same without him. It seems she regrets taking his life. In the meantime, Edouard’s children just wish that everyone would stop talking about how their father died and leave their family alone.
Sources
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/5562125/Cecile-Brossard-awaits-sentence-for-murder-of-Edouard-Stern-during-sadomasochistic-sex.html
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/cecile-brossard-sentenced-to-eight-years-jail-for-sex-game-murder/news-story/1583905a2337b493e6bfad35d5909269?sv=fdbb7419f58f0d770a7b40c2ba27049a
http://www.businessinsider.com/cecile-brossard-killed-a-billionaire-banker-freed-from-jail-2010-11
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-12/cecile-brossard-edouard-stern-murder-tv/5151942
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