Two men and a woman were indicted in Paris on Friday for suspicion of partial unemployment fraud, AFP learned on Friday from a judicial source, in a case which according to
the Parisian
would relate to more than 10 million euros of damage .
Read also: Partial unemployment on the rise in April with 2.7 million employees concerned
According to the judicial source,
"the two men were indicted on charges of organized fraud, aggravated money laundering and criminal association"
. The first was remanded in custody and the second incarcerated pending the debate on his detention, said the same source. The woman was indicted for
"aggravated money laundering"
and
"concealment of fraud"
and placed under judicial supervision. A fourth person, a woman, was placed under the status of assisted witness, still from a judicial source.
According to the daily, these indictments concern several members of the same family, Dan J., a 30-year-old Franco-Israeli, his wife and his father.
They were reportedly carried out within the framework of a judicial investigation opened in January by the Junalco, the national court in charge of the fight against organized crime.
The J family
“is suspected of having played a leading role in the resounding partial unemployment scam.
On their own, Dan J. and his relatives would have embezzled more than 11 million euros of public money intended to help companies during the Covid-19 crisis ”
, according to the daily.
500,000 checks since the start of the health crisis
The process is often the same in these cases: these people are suspected of having usurped the identity of real companies by asking in their place to receive short-time work and by being fired of the money intended for them.
Read also: Partial unemployment: the government is preparing the end of aid
Several investigations have been opened all over France on these massive scams.
At the end of January, the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne had indicated that some 500,000 checks carried out since the start of the health crisis had made it possible to detect such fraud involving some 200 million euros.
"70% of the amounts that were the subject of suspicion were blocked from the start, and we were able to recover 80% of the money that had been unduly paid,"
added the Minister.