French national team player and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema is under investigation in a case involving another French player, Mathieu Valbuena.
Mathieu Valbuena was blackmailed over an alleged sex tape and there are claims that Karim Benzema was involved in the attempt to blackmail Valbuena.
Karim Benzema is suspected to have worked in concert with Zenati as a messenger in the scheme to extort Valbuena.
Karim Benzema had earlier claimed had earlier denied any involvement with his lawyer insisting that “took no part, I state this again — no part — in the blackmail or blackmail attempts.”
French Sports Newspaper “L’Equipe” published a transcript of a conversation between Zenati and Benzema.
Benzema: Go ahead, I saw the other guy [referring to Valbuena].
Zenati: And, what do you think?
Benzema: Ummm, what do I think, really?
Zenati: Yes.
Benzema: I think he doesn’t take us seriously.
Zenati: No?
Benzema: There you have it.
Zenati: So that means in reality he won’t give anything, no?
Benzema: Yes, yes, yes, he’s not taking us seriously.
Benzema: I spoke to him about his family, I said that nothing can be done about rumours, that I don’t give a shit [about them], I went on to say to him. I said to him that now if someone releases a photo, a video like that. That for me that’s absolutely nothing but your mother, your father are going to see your wife or I don’t know who. Look, after that he was thinking, thinking. I said to him that in any case he should do whatever he wants. I’m with the French national team until Sunday, if you give me your number, I’ll give it to him, I’ll give it to my friend. He will come and see you in Lyon, you’ll discuss it with him, though he didn’t want to. Well, it’s your life, but I’ve warned you, eh?
Zenati: That’s good, brother, you’ve done really well.
Benzema: You’ve got to go, I told him. After that I don’t know what he’s going to do. He’ll call his agent, he’ll say they have the video. I said to him, listen, no intermediary, no lawyer, no friend, no agent, no police, it’s not what you want.
Benzema: He said to me, where did the video come from? I said to him: I have no idea.
Zenati: When he goes to sleep, he’ll know you told him the truth.
Benzema: Well no, he was completely white.
Zenati: Yes.
Benzema: He said to me, the video, where did you see it? How long ago since you saw it? After, he asked me more questions, but it was like… I saw him gulping, he started gulping two, three times.
Zenati: (laughs)
Benzema: Have you seen a guy start panicking? Have you seen that?