Two entrepreneurs sentenced for attempted extortion around Corsica's most beautiful beach

It all began in the early 90s when Jean-Philippe Benichou, owner of an industrial bakery on the French Riviera, became friends with real estate entrepreneur Alain Terrazzoni. He introduced him to Corsica and introduced him to brothers Antoine and Paul-Noël Milanini, owners of a restaurant on Palombaggia beach.

In 2016, Mr. Benichou and the Milanini brothers purchased a plot of land in Palombaggia for 2 million euros, intended to be divided into six plots to create six villas.

Mr. Benichou invested 800.000 euros in building his house and moved in in 2016 before "neighborhood tensions" arose a few months later with the Milanini brothers, recalls the president of the Ajaccio criminal court.

In 2017, Alain Terrazzoni, accompanied by one of his friends and business associates, Jean-Jacques Pietri, informed Mr. Benichou that there were "killers in the service of Antoine Milanini" who were after him.

According to recordings of telephone conversations made by Mr. Benichou himself, Alain Terrazzoni ordered him to pay 500.000 euros for "his peace of mind" and to "sell the house without making any capital gain."

"How much is your life worth? 400.000, 500.000 euros? You've been ripped off, you've had a bad time," Mr. Terrazzoni said on one of the tapes played at the trial.

"Everything becomes a threat," Mr. Benichou told the court. Terrazzoni insisted that he had simply "wanted to help."

A few days later, frightened, Jean-Philippe Benichou, his wife and their two children hurriedly left Corsica by helicopter for Monaco, before going to Israel.

Two years later, in 2019, the Benichou couple filed a complaint. During the investigation, the neighbor, Antoine Milanini, denied being behind the case and no charges were brought against him.

On Friday, Alain Terrazzoni was sentenced for attempted extortion to four years in prison, 30 of which were suspended for three years, and a fine of 50.000 euros.

For his part, Jean-Jacques Pietri was sentenced for complicity in attempted extortion to 24 months in prison, 16 of which were suspended with a three-year probationary period, and a fine of 20.000 euros.

The court followed the prosecutor's submissions, who had denounced "a climate of terror" orchestrated by "the racketeer and his accomplice."

But for Marie-Line Orsetti, Mr. Pietri's lawyer, this trial was only "a probative charade" without any proven offense.

David-Olivier Kaminski, one of Mr. Terrazzoni's lawyers, questioned the hypothesis that the "virtuous friend of 30 years" had become the "demonic enemy", believing that Mr. Benichou "made a film by saying to himself 'this is Corsica in all its splendor'".