Why this former spy murdered his billionaire stepmother

2023 saw a number of curious criminal cases. One of them was the confession by Nicolas Ullens, a 57-year-old former Belgian spy, that he had killed his wealthy stepmother. Here's what happened!

Image: Nicolas Ullens, Youtube

On March 29, 2023, billionaire art collector and philanthropist Baroness Myriam 'Mimi’ Ullens, 70, was fatally shot several times in front of her home in Ohain, Belgium. She was in the car with her husband and the father of Nicolas, Guy Ullens, who was also injured during the shooting.

Making the fictionalized billionaire family on HBO’s ‘Succession’ look like the ‘Brady Bunch,’ Nicolas claims the murder was due to an ongoing dispute regarding the Ullens’ inheritance structure, which he alleges Myriam was interfering with. He turned himself in to the poilice following the murder.

Nicolas is Guy Ullen’s son with the billionaire’s ex-wife Micheline Franckx. Nicolas was formerly a Belgian spy but was involved in a big scandal. He dramatically alleged that Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders was corrupt. He had an active YouTube account where he talked about corruption theories.

Image: Nicolas Ullens, Youtube

Brigitte Ullens, Nicolas’s sister, defended her brother in an interview with Nieuwsblad, claiming that Mimi was trying to keep Guy’s fortune to herself and even forbade their father from contacting them. “We’re with our brother; Mimi destroyed our family,” she said.

Brigitte said her brother finally snapped when he heard about plans to sell the family home. “She had just put the house up for sale. What was she going to do with the money? I don’t know, but I guess she would have kept it for herself,” she said.

Photo: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels

Paris Match reported that Guy Ullens had not totally abandoned his kids and was still paying them 50,000 euros per month. However, Nicolas's lawyer later denied the claim. "It's not just about money. It's also a question of human relations, of conflict between my client, his father and his mother-in-law," said the lawyer, according to Belgian daily 7sur.

Image: Nicolas Ullens/Odysee

Following the murder, Baron Guy Ullens, Mimi's husband, filed a civil lawsuit against his son Nicolas with Belgian attorney Nathalie Buisseret, according to De Standaard.

Nicolas Ullens has been in the Nivelles prison in Belgium for more than four months. According to Belgian news agency SudInfo, he mostly stays in his cell but also works at the library, earning just 80 cents per hour. He has also reportedly lost 12 kilos (26 pounds).

Image: Nicolas Ullens/Odysee

The Baroness’s funeral was held in the charming town of Ohain, where she lived and was murdered. An array of well-known friends and family attended. Here's some more about her fascinating life...

She was born to a middle-class Belgian family in Germany. She married and had two children in her 20s while also running a restaurant. Later, she began making cakes to sell from home and eventually opened a pastry shop called 'Sweetly' in Brussels.

Guy, 88, was born in San Fransisco into the Dutch noble family Ullens. He made his fortune running the family sugar business, but also helped grow the wealth, buying Weight Watchers in 1999 for $735 million, which Forbes called “one of the best private equity deals ever.”

Guy and Myriam met in 1991 when Mimi was raising her two children on her own. They married in 1999, after Guy divorced his first wife of 44 years, with whom he had four children (including Nicolas and Brigitte). Guy and Mimi didn't have children.

After getting married, both Guy and Mimi decided to step away from business. For Guy, that meant losing out on billions in potential earnings, according to Forbes. But already billionaires, they instead decided to go on a charitable spending spree, as the New York Times described it.

In 2007, Guy and Myriam opened the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, which has since become a world-renowned institution. It was the first major museum in China dedicated to contemporary art.

Many European leaders have visited the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Here, Myriam is seen with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his state visit to China in 2007. The Belgian leader Charles Michel also attended alongside Mimi.

Even before meeting Guy, Mimi volunteered to help children. Eventually, the couple established an orphanage and the Ullens School in Kathmandu, which offers education up to the university level.

After surviving breast cancer, in 2006, Mimi founded her own foundation to provide cancer patients with psychological support while being treated in hospitals. The foundation also supports research.

Image: mimifoundation / Instagram

Myriam Ullens founded Maison Ullens, a luxury clothing line aimed at creating “the perfect travel wardrobe,” with stores in Paris, New York, and Aspen. It was worn by the royals, and Mimi aimed for its sales to cover the expenses of the Mimi Foundation.

Image: Maison Ullens / Instagram

In August, several months her death, Maison Ullens closed its doors. On June 15, the company decided to file for bankruptcy and the company's latest financial report shows it made a loss of more than 10 million euros. According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, that was too much after Guy had already pumped more than 85 million euros into the business over the past year.

Image: @maison_ullens/Instagram

The couple also embraced Guy’s hobby of collecting art and even have the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, which manages their dazzling and expensive collection. It holds one of the largest digital art collections in the world.

Between using their wealth to spread art, health, and education, they were also known for rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. According to the Daily Mail, they enjoyed the company of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium at their Swiss chalet for skiing holidays.

Here, they are pictured at an art fair in Venice.

According to local media, any business proceeds were insufficient to keep their estimated $3 billion intact. With this came the family drama, as Guy’s children had reportedly accused Mimi of squandering the family fortune on personal projects for years.

According to a statement from Maison Ullens, “Mimi constantly reminded us that the most important thing is to say thank you to life every day. This is how she would want everyone to remember her.”

Image: Maison Ullens/Instagram