Tunisia’s exiled President Ben Ali and the Riviera  RLTV 18 Jan 11 Paris investigators are researching options to prosecute an unnamed associate of exiled Tunisian President Ben Ali for money laundering, according to Nice Matin. The paper reports that the Ben Ali family and wife, Leila Trabelsi were regular visitors to the Cote d’azur. Trabelsi was in Monaco for the Grand Prix last May hiring a suite in the Metrople. According to a former employee, the family owns an entire building in Monaco opposite the Grimaldi Forum. Ben Ali’s family spent several summers in the Gulf of St. Tropez renting four or five villas in Ramatuelle (pic). Ice cream and yoghurt from St. Tropez were often flown to Tunis for dinner parties held by the Ben Ali family. MD.

Jean-Claude Duvalier's years in exile on the Riviera  guardian.co.uk 17 Jan 11 'Baby Doc' went from riches to rags after fleeing the Caribbean for France in 1986. Now back in Haiti, he faces an uncertain fate. When the Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier arrived in France in 1986 with millions of dollars looted from the Caribbean country's national treasury, he did not intend to stay long. At first, he lived in a style to which he was accustomed: a magnificent chateau outside Paris and a luxury villa on the Côte d'Azur, where the family boasted speed boats and collections of jewels and art. Duvalier would race around the French Riviera in fast cars including a Mercedes, a BMW and a Ferrari Testarossa. Kim Willsher.

Omar Bongo pocketed millions in embezzled funds, claims US cable  guardian.co.uk 30 Dec 10 Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo allegedly pocketed millions in embezzled funds from central African states, channelling some of it to French political parties in support of Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a US embassy cable released by Wikileaks and published by El País. A senior official at the Bank of Central African States (Beac) told a US diplomat in Cameroon of Bongo's "brazen" defrauding of the bank which holds the pooled reserves of six central African countries, including Gabon, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Shortly after Bongo's death in 2009, the US embassy in Yaounde said the bank source told them: "Gabonese officials used the proceeds for their own enrichment and, at Bongo's direction, funnelled funds to French political parties, including in support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy." The Bongo clan is one of three families of African leaders currently under investigation in Paris over whether they embezzled state funds to acquire vast assets in France, including bank accounts, Riviera villas and fleets of luxury cars. Angelique Chrisafis.     Video Report from France 24

FR3 Video The Late Gabon President's Controversial Properties In Nice  RLTV 13 Jun 09 Gabon President for 42 years, El Hadj Omar Bongo died on Monday 8th June 09. Prior to his death he was under investigation by judicial authorities in France for alleged embezzlement. It was alleged that the volume of real estate owned by Mr Bongo's family in France could not have been purchased with official salaries alone. In recent weeks his bank accounts in France were frozen following bribery allegations. In 2007 a police investigation into real estate owned by the President and his family in France disclosed 33 properties in Paris and Nice worth an estimated $190 million.

Amongst his properties in Nice are an estate on Boulevard Frederick Sperling in Nice's wealthiest district Cimiez (pictured above) with three villas, two apartments and a pool worth €5million and an apartment complex in nearby Avenue Scuderi. Mr Bongo was also linked to the 1990s investigation of the French state-owned oil firm Elf-Aquitaine, which exposed a murky world of bribes and secret funding of political parties. He was named as the final beneficiary of millions of dollars transferred into Swiss bank accounts - but again, he strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Zaire's former dictator Mobuto Sese Seko

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein

Saddams lost life on the Riviera  The Times 9 Oct 2005 The former Iraqi dictator, had two sumptuous homes in southern France. Saddam never visited either property but one, a white-walled, 12-bedroomed villa on a hill overlooking Cannes, was occasionally used for parties by Uday, his son.  The other house, worth £4m, is perched in the hills above Grasse, capital of the French perfume industry. Matthew Campbell.

Former Villa of Belgium's King Leopold II in the News

Russian Oligarch in Dispute Over Villa

Just weeks before the banking bubble burst last September, the Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov is reported to have decided to purchase the opulent Villa Leopolda in Villefranche-sur-Mer from the wife of the late US banker Edmond Safra. The reported price tag of almost €400 million would have made it the most expensive property deal in the world. The €3.9m local taxes on the deal would have equalled Villefranche-sur-Mer's total annual budget. Prokhorov who is reported to be worth €14bn, filed papers to cancel the deal in January and wants his deposit back. The current owner, philanthropist Lilly Safra says she is not required to return the deposit and wants to donate it to charities supporting medical research, patient care, education and other important humanitarian causes. This video posted on YouTube last August, when the deal was announced, shows a news report from French TV channel TF1 with views of the property that was built by Belgium's King Leopold II in 1902. RLTV. Read More here.

Russian Oligarchs

Russia's post-Communist super rich businessmen, commonly referred to as the 'oligarchs', have become a fixture on the Cote d'Azur. Many have bought, and sold, some of the most prestigious real estate on the French Riviera. We look at some of the recent deals that have hit the headlines.

Le Provençal Delayed By Property Market Crash

This massive project in Juans les Pins was slated to open in 2010 with local developers confident that the sub-prime inspired global property crash would not touch the Cote d'Azur. However, rumours abounded that the project had ground to a halt and even that it was unviable in the current economic climate. To address these rumours, Provençal Investments SA issued a press statement announcing that the project was now 'due for completion 2012'.

Bernie Madoff's Riviera Assets

Last year people who had never met Bernie Madoff were queuing up to invest their wealth with him on the promise of secured returns. This year he is the scourge of the investmet world. The big question is how he got away with his $50bn 'Ponzi Scheme' scam for so long. Now US authorities want to seize his assets. His property on Cap d'Antibes is relatively modest valued at $1.6m. Madoff's $7m yacht 'Bull' is moored in the South of France.