It’s been six years since the infamous Paris robbery that left Kim Kardashian tied up at a hotel during Fashion Week. Over the weekend, VICE Media published an interview they conducted with Yunis Abbas, one of the 12 men indicted on robbery charges. Abbas, who is now 67 years old, went into detail about the robbery, explaining that he and the other men studied Kim Kardashian’s social media pages closely over the course of two years before executing their plan.
Kim Kardashian arrives at Hotel de la Marine on July 06, 2022 in Paris, France. (Jacopo M. Raule/Getty Images)
“I went on the internet and I saw her jewelry. I saw her ring. I saw that she showed it everywhere,” he said. “We knew this information through social media. We knew that she was coming for Fashion Week, so we went there to do some reconnaissance so we were sure.”
He added, “We got in through the little door that was open on the inside, as soon as we got in we took control of the concierge… We overpowered him, we tied him up. Then we looked for the keys to the bedroom she stayed in.”
The reason they escaped was because Kim’s assistant called 911, the American emergency number, rather than French police. This gave the culprits enough time to grab the jewelry and get away. However, he said he left DNA on the concierge, which he believes is how he got caught.
Elsewhere in the interview, Abbas admitted that he had no idea who Kim was at the time but he was fully aware of her then-partner, Kanye West. He explained that Kim’s extravagant lifestyle that she frequently showed off on Keeping Up With The Kardashians is what motivated the heist in the first place.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
“I saw one of her shows where she threw her diamond in the pool, in that episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I thought, ‘She’s got a lot of money. This lady doesn’t care at all,'” he said before admitting he feels no remorse over his actions. “Since she was throwing money away, I was there to collect it and that was that. Guilty? No, I don’t care. I don’t care.” Though he doesn’t doubt that “she must have been traumatized,” he ultimately blamed Kim for being “provocative.”
“They should be a little less showy toward people who can’t afford it,” he said. “For some people, it’s provocative.”