Once a teacher, he quickly became a businessman, buying up a number of ailing companies at low cost, then making them profitable before selling them on.

In the late 1990s, he created Brasil Tropical, a dinner show, and L'Enfer (later renamed Le Red Light), a nightclub.

The investigators examined several leads: a crime of passion, a murder committed by a debtor, or a settling of scores, the most likely, but no suspect was identified, leaving the case unsolved.

[1] He grew up in Marseille, in a family of industrialists, surrounded by three sisters,[M 1][M 2] and went on to complete a long course of studies, graduating with an agrégation in mathematics.

[M 9][M 10] When he died in 1990, Francis Imbard bought the company from his heirs, then sold it a few years later for a large capital gain.

[2][3][M 11] In 1996, Francis Imbard renovated the former squash courts under the slab of the Montparnasse Tower, and opened the Brasil Tropical, a 550-cover dinner and show.

[2][4][5][M 15] Francis Imbard lived in a large apartment, occupying the entire 5th and top floor of a building at number 50, rue Copernic, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

[M 16] On Wednesday February 26, 2003, at around 10 am, the apartment's cleaning lady, Malika, climbed the back staircase and began her day's work in the kitchen, where she found Francis Imbard's daughter Julie.

The victim's body laid on its back across the landing, feet in the apartment doorway, head towards the black iron railing, with a bloodstain.

Surrounding the body were all the belongings the victim had been carrying out of the apartment: car keys, a pen, a cell phone and a large red diary (see diagram opposite).

[M 26] The forensic identification technicians looked for a genetic fingerprint on the landing, but given that the stairwell is a semi-open environment and the crime scene was polluted (notably by the intervention of the fire department), no trace was found.

It was established that his death was caused by the single shot, fired at point-blank range, i.e. that the tip of the gun had hit the victim.

[M 39] However, the building's janitor reported having seen and experienced some unusual events on the morning of the crime:[M 40] 40 minutes before the shooting, she noticed that an EDF agent was in the courtyard, even though she had not been told he was coming.

The day after the murder, while she was at the Brasil Tropical, an employee told her that she had been at the bottom of the building at the time of the shooting, and had thus seen her father's killer.

Investigators explored two relationships: one with his Brazilian employee, Sueli, who was ruled out as a suspect due to lack of motive,[M 54] and the other with his official mistress and lawyer.

The third and last lead they followed was the one which involved an ex-collaborator seeking revenge, since Francis Imbard, a prominent figure in the Paris nightlife scene,[M 61] faced a series of troubling events.

In the late 1990s, his club, L'Enfer, faced internal issues with its security team taking control and engaging in unauthorized activities.

[4][M 14] Imbard, facing threats and violence, parted ways[3][M 63][M 64] with key individuals, including Mohamed,[7] a former bouncer[M 65] turned partner, who later exhibited hostile behavior.

Mohamed, accused of theft and issuing threats, had an alibi on the day of the murder but exhibited suspicious behavior, such as changing SIM cards and leaving for Brazil immediately after the crime.

One, a former night watchman at Imbard's club, had a suspicious location on the day of the murder but lacked sufficient evidence for detention.

In February 2004, Mohamed Rabehi, Francis Imbard's ex-partner, faced charges related to financial misconduct, accused of diverting substantial sums from L'Enfer's funds to foreign accounts.

[8] The case was dismissed in October 2008 by Judge Émilie Petel, but the Imbard family's lawyer pursued an appeal, leading to a reopening of the investigation in 2011 under a new examining magistrate.

[M 82] In December 2021, Sabine Khéris, the current investigating judge, indicted Mohamed Rabehi, already implicated in the case, for allegedly ordering the murder.