French High Roller Arnaud Mimran Arrested for Tax Evasion and Murder

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French businessman and high-stakes poker player Arnaud Mimran (pictured) has been arrested by France’s National Judicial Customs Department for his alleged involvement in a number of financial frauds, along with multiple murders.

The 43-year-old is the son of fashion mogul Joseph Mimran, the Algerian-born designer who created the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands. Arnaud became known in poker circles after his name appeared on a list of participants in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop at the WSOP in 2012.

He has had modest success in other high buy-in tournaments, including the 2006 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo event where he banked €28,100 for 13th place. Mimran has occasionally appeared on tabloid news sites accompanying his girlfriend, Paraguayan model Claudia Galanti, in global hotspots.

But the jet setter might soon be forced to trade in his high-priced wardrobe for a prison jumpsuit. The SNDJ believes Mimran played a significant role in a carbon tax fraud scheme in the 2000s and is likely involved in three unsolved murders.

Police suspect that the French Playboy played a role in the killing of Samy Souid, an alleged partner in the carbon scam who was gunned down in Mimran’s presence. Police believe that Souid had met with Mimran to discuss a multimillion dollar investment which the Frenchman was supposed to have made on Souid’s behalf, but never did. Unable or unwilling to pay the money back, Mimran allegedly ordered the hit. He was one of the few people who were aware that Souid would be in Paris on that day.

The 43-year-old’s name has also appeared on the list of possible suspects in the murder of Mimran’s billionaire ex-father-in-law, Claude Dray. The tycoon was mysteriously killed inside his mansion, where police found no signs of forced entry.

The third alleged target of Mimran’s vengeance was Cyril Mouly (pictured), the French high-stakes poker player who was immortalized in a massive Photoshop thread on 2+2. Last year, Mouly and his chauffeur were attacked by a pair of knife-wielding men after leaving a poker game in the early morning hours. Mouly fought off the attackers and ran for help, but his companion died on the scene after receiving multiple stab wounds to the chest. Mouly himself was later arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in several frauds.

According to the French newspaper leJDD, Mimran used his connections in finance to help a group of around 12 individuals launder the enormous profits generated by the C02 scam. Mimran was so steeped in organized crime, some have claimed that he was a leader of the so-called Paris Jewish Mafia. In light of the fact that all of the other perpetrators of the carbon scheme had already been arrested, some believe that Mimran might have even enjoyed police protection.

While the Frenchman only claimed to make €45,000 a year between 2010 and 2012, the press noted that Mimran lived in a 400-square-meter flat, complete with a pool, in an exclusive Paris neighborhood. He was also known to throw lavish parties and had even paid music industry stars like Puff Daddy and Pharrell Williams to make appearances at his son’s bar mitzvah.

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