French tycoon Bernard Tapie relaunched his scandal-ridden efforts to obtain damages over his sale of sportswear giant Adidas in the 1990s, with his lawyer seeking compensation of up to 1.2 billion euros.
The former owner of the Olympique Marseille football club was awarded 403 million euros (USD 450 million) by an arbitration panel in 2008, but that decision was clouded in scandal and overturned in February.
Prosecutors have accused one of the arbitration judges of conspiring with Tapie and others to rig the payout in the businessman's favour.
The case even ensnared International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who was France's finance minister at the time, and is accused of negligence for failing to challenge the decision.
Her former chief of staff, Stephane Richard, now head of the Orange telecom giant, is among those charged with fraud.
But even before that case has been decided, Tapie was back in court today, renewing his demand for damages.
The 72-year-old accuses the Credit Lyonnais bank of defrauding him by undervaluing Adidas when he sold the sports goods company in 1993.
Tapie's lawyer, Emmanuel Gaillard, told the court of appeal in Paris they were seeking between 516 million and 1.17 billion euros for financial losses, as well as a further 50 million euros in "personal and emotional damages."
Gaillard told the court it should "rectify, I hope in the strongest terms possible, the injury done to Mr Tapie."
Tapie bought Adidas in the early 1990s but decided to sell it shortly after to concentrate on his political career, putting the sale in the hands of Credit Lyonnais, a state-run bank that has since been privatised.
Adidas was re-sold in 1994 for a substantially higher sum, and floated on the French stock exchange in 1995 -- leading Tapie to claim that the bank had failed in its duty of care.
