Robert – SamaGamer

This article contains potential spoilers on Oppenheimer.

When the casting ofOppenheimer, the presence of Robert Downey Jr. was one of the most exciting pieces of information to come out of it. Not because the actor has become, thanks to his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man, one of the most popular celebrities on the planet, but above all because this arrival in Christopher Nolan’s cinema formalized the return of the New Yorkers to a more harsh and ambitious cinema. After more than a decade playing alpha males always on the right side of justice, the 58-year-old actor could finally do what he does best again: play unflattering, ambiguous and morally detestable characters. Needless to say, we no longer believed it.

In Oppenheimerthe 12th feature film by Christopher Nolan which has just been released in theaters, Robert Downey Jr. plays the role of Lewis Strauss, American businessman who became a leading politician in the mid-1950s. Appointed Acting Secretary of Commerce under the governance by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, he embodied one of the most important figures in the development of nuclear energy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In contact with renowned physicists like Ernest Lawrence (played by the ghost Josh Hartnett in the film) and J. Robert Oppenheimer (an immense Cillian Murphy), he sees in atomic weapons the opportunity to establish the position of strength of the United States in the great world chessboard against Russia . A position that the initiator of the Manhattan Project, who was at the origin of the first atomic bomb dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, will not share, hoping on the contrary that its use will be curbed .

Christopher Nolan magnifies Robert Downey Jr.

Their disagreement, exposed in a scene of public humiliation from which Lewis Strauss never recovered, led to the disgrace of Robert Oppenheimer during a “security hearing” held in 1954 in Washington which accused the physicist of being complicit in the USSR because of its past ties with the Communist Party. Even if Oppenheimer is largely devoted to the man who will become “the father of the atomic bomb”, Christopher Nolan chooses, like his most notable films, to orchestrate an opposition. Two views on the world and on different real-life situations that the filmmaker distinguishes using an extremely simple process: the scenes told from Robert Oppenheimer’s point of view are in color, those seen through the eyes of Lewis Strauss in black and white.

Businessman Robert Giroux says he is the subject of a “campaign of denigration, intimidation and threats” from certain Quebec millionaires who have invested in Groupe Huot and is now asking the court to cancel the seizure orders issued against him.

• Read also: Debacle of the Huot group: Quebec millionaires evoke a “Ponzi scheme” and claim 150 million dollars

• Read also: Businessman Robert Giroux denies having set up a “scheme similar to a Ponzi scheme”

“On several occasions, some of the complainants have clearly expressed their desire to punish me,” said Robert Giroux in an affidavit filed last Friday at the Quebec courthouse.

Robert Giroux and his companies are currently facing two civil lawsuits totaling $150 million from Quebec City millionaires. Through two funds operated by Robert Giroux (SH and Q-12), the plaintiffs invested colossal sums in the Huot Group, in exchange for a return of 12% per year.

The millionaires now claim that the businessman would have enriched himself at their expense and that he would have set up a “scheme which resembles a Ponzi scheme”. “Spectacular” allegations rejected out of hand by the accused.

“The allegations relating to the establishment, development and implementation of a ‘Ponzi’ style scheme are criminal in nature and very serious”, insists in his affidavit Robert Giroux, who maintains that these allegations have tarnished his reputation and shocked those close to him.

Huot allegedly refused to sell

In his press release, the businessman also reveals more about the origins of the financial debacle of the Huot Group. At the end of 2021, Stéphan Huot would have been informed that the SH fund would not renew its financing in 2023.

Subject to the obligation to repay these lenders in 2022, the owner of the Huot Group would have requested and obtained several purchase offers “at very attractive prices” for his rental properties, which would have been “largely sufficient to repay” his debt. But the promoter would have refused to sell, argues Robert Giroux.

“Stéphan Huot wanted to obtain even more advantageous prices and even aspired to set records in terms of selling prices for the Quebec region,” writes the defendant.

At the same time, interest rates started to climb significantly. Stéphan Huot would then have realized that he could not sell his real estate at the prices offered in the past.

Indeed, the value of the properties of the Huot Group would have decreased, as would the equity under guarantee, going from nearly $240 million in 2022 to an estimated amount between $50 and $70 million in 2023, according to estimates by Robert Giroux. . Some $525 million of Stéphan Huot’s financing would have been at variable rates, which would have contributed to the insolvency of the Huot Group, pleads the defendant.

Huot would therefore have mandated a firm to raise capital for its residential complexes. A plan called “Marvel” would have been put in place to collect between 120 and 140 M$. But at the start of 2023, Robert Giroux would have realized that this plan could not materialize.

Cassation of seizures

In the wake of the $150 million lawsuit, the court on June 29 ordered the seizure of buildings, land, stocks and bank accounts belonging to Robert Giroux, in addition to temporarily prohibiting him from selling or mortgaging his property. Robert Giroux is now challenging those orders.

The court ordered the seizure, on June 29, of this chalet belonging to Robert Giroux.

DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC

The court ordered, on June 29, the seizure of this residence belonging to Robert Giroux.

DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC

In a motion for revocation of judgment filed on Friday, Robert Giroux argues, among other things, that the plaintiffs failed in their obligation “for frank and complete disclosure of the evidence”. In particular, they would not have explained the reasons for the collapse of the Huot Group, just as they would not have notified the court that the millionaires were “qualified investors”.

“A qualified investor is therefore well aware that the value of investments may fluctuate, that there is no guarantee of positive return and that investments may be subject to a partial or total loss of the capital invested – this omission , too, is unforgivable, ”says the lawyer for Robert Giroux, in his request.

The case is due back in court on Monday.

journaldemontreal