From 1986 to 1994 he was president of the Olympique de Marseille soccer club, which became Champion of France and won the League of Champions. In 1993, he was accused of fixing the match between his club and the minor club of Valenciennes; the motivation seemed to be that, in this way, he could save his best players for important matches and not waste their energy. His club was stripped of his championship and moved to an inferior division. In 1994, he was put under criminal investigation for complicity of corruption and subornation of witnesses; he squabbled with prosecutor Éric de Montgolfier. In 1995, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Douai to 2 years in prison, including 8 non suspended, and 3 years of deprivation of his civic rights. He was incarcerated for about 6 months in 1997.
Bernard Tapie was also prosecuted for tax fraud.
He starred, together with Fabrice Luchini in Claude Lelouch's 1996 movie Hommes, femmes, mode d'emploi (Men, Women: A User's Manual).
This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it.