Millions of euros lost in a supposedly ultra-lucrative fund in Hong Kong. A self-taught trader nicknamed by the press the “Madoff of Maine-et-Loire” was sentenced Thursday in Paris to two years in prison for having defrauded dozens of investors.
Guillain Méjane, 41, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, including three years suspended on probation for fraud, illegal provision of investment services and laundering tax fraud. The court specified that the fixed part of his sentence would be adjusted: he would therefore not go to prison.
With a childhood friend and associate, between 2012 and 2014 they convinced investors from Anjou, through their entourage and then by word of mouth, to invest nearly 16 million euros in a company called Now For Tomorrow (NFT) and registered in Hong Kong. While they boasted prodigious returns from trading on the international Forex market, 10.6 million euros were lost on the financial markets according to the investigation, which put the sums used at 1.6 million euros. in personal expenses by Guillain Méjane, the rest having other destinations.
“Cynicism”
The defendant was sentenced to 10 years' ban on managing a company and practicing a profession related to finance. His house in Maine-et-Loire was confiscated as the sale price of a Ferrari acquired with NFT funds. Present on Thursday, he did not speak to the press. During his trial in January, he apologized and admitted part of the alleged facts, but disputed any fraud. After a “work of digestion” of the judgment, there will be a “work of reflection” concerning a possible appeal, declared his lawyer Me Pierre-Henri Baert.
In her deliberations, the president underlined the "seriousness of the facts", linked to the "number of victims, the amount of damage", but also to a "certain cynicism" of the accused "who clearly made the deliberate choice to exercise this very risky activity (...) without any approval, without skills and by voluntarily placing oneself outside of any supervision.” She also noted the “singularity” of this case, due to the “personality” of the defendant who, “as his lawyers pointed out, undoubtedly made his disability a strength, whose charisma all the victims emphasized particular (...) ". The defendant was born without legs and an arm.
The court considered that he had indeed used “fraudulent maneuvers”, both in the NFT sales brochure and in the weekly newsletters sent to customers, which “gave confidence” to new investors. The former associate of Guillain Méjane, Gaëtan O., was acquitted of prosecution for complicity in fraud, the court considering that he was not aware of the NFT losses. He was nevertheless sentenced to two years in prison with suspended probation and a fine of 50,000 euros for the two other same offenses.
Read also Trial of the “Madoff of Maine-et-Loire”: the crook of the Angevin aristos, the betrayed friend and the millions stolen
The aunt and grandmother of Gaëtan O. as well as the father of Guillain Méjane were given suspended prison sentences and fines for money laundering. Guillain Méjane's defense "welcomed" that the court remained "below the requisitions" of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) - 3 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros - and that it "retained the fault of the civil parties who contributed to the creation of their damage”, which “considerably reduces the damages”.
Around sixty investors obtained compensation, but at 40% of their damage, the magistrates ruling that they had committed “culpable negligence”, in essence that they had signed the NFT contracts too lightly. “This is a decision based on the facts from a criminal point of view. On the other hand, the sharing of responsibilities on the civil level is shocking and amounts to blaming the victims who are responsible for 60% of their misfortune - in other words less than the people convicted,” said one of their counsel, Mr. Paul Le Fevre.
With the State, these civil parties had requested a total of around 6 million euros - the sum ultimately awarded was not immediately specified.