Billionaire Drahi Cornered by Debt Mountain, Corruption Scandal

At Goldman Sachs’s gleaming Plumtree Court offices in London on Sept. 6, Patrick Drahi pledged something that would once have been unthinkable: His willingness to put every part of Altice, the telecommunications and media giant he cobbled together over 30 years, up for sale.

“Everything is open... It’s just a question of offer and demand,” the French-Israeli billionaire told about 200 debt investors gathered in a packed auditorium and several more on Zoom, according to an unofficial transcript of the meeting seen by Bloomberg. “All in, man, all in. Plus the Eiffel Tower. Okay?”

The 60-year-old tycoon’s debt-fueled acquisitions when interest rates were low put ...