Scam artists.
With the recent arrest of the partner of one investigators suspect of being the leader of a team specializing in the transaction scam, otherwise known as the "rip deal", almost the entire gang has been arrested.
Even if the central link is still missing, a 44-year-old man, "the pillar" of these teams of drawers who have managed to splash about five million euros to eight victims since 2015.
It is a crime committed in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), on December 14, 2014, which launched the investigations.
This is the assassination of an Egyptian named Salah, shot three times in the street.
His occult activities emerged during the investigation into his murder, of which Cristache C. is accused.
In June 2020, this 65-year-old Romanian appeared before the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court but his trial was interrupted by the appointment of his lawyer, Me Dupond-Moretti, to the Ministry of Justice.
The debates will resume from zero in May 2021. Always with the alleged accomplices of Cristache C., including an Egyptian nicknamed Ali, a man who then lived in Romania and traveled regularly to France.
The suspects lived sparingly in Seine-Saint-Denis and Vanves
It is the investigations on this Ali, presented in the murder case as the friend of the victim killed in Boulogne-Billancourt, which initiated the investigation into the "rip deal".
This Egyptian indeed seemed to have become the successor of his late compatriot, who was probably "the banker" of the organization.
By working on Ali's relations and movements, by listening to his telephone conversations, investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime (OCRGDF) identified several accomplices and then other suspects.
Until a net in March 2018, with the arrest of seven people, gypsies settled in France for the most part, who lived sparingly in Seine-Saint-Denis or Vanves (92), suspected of several "rip deals ”, Especially diamond scams.
Like the one in which the undoubtedly talented crooks robbed a diamond dealer in Shanghai in May 2017.
One box of diamonds replaced by another
In an effective scenario, the criminals have lured their prey into a trap.
Through an intermediary, a member of the team posed as a buyer wishing to acquire three rings.
Appointment was made in Hong Kong, where a so-called expert appeared alongside the bogus buyer during the negotiation.
On the day of the transaction, at a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, the fake gemologist rechecked the stones before requesting that they be kept in a sealed box.
With the dexterity of bonneteau masters, he replaced the diamond box with another, also sealed.
The scammers were a long way off when the diamond dealer discovered the exchange of boxes.
The stones were worth more than $ 3 million, or around 2.5 million euros.
READ ALSO>
Counterfeit money scam: six men tried for stealing luxury watches and a diamond
The dismantled team was not only interested in diamonds.
A Singaporean business man negotiating the sale of his cruise ship has had $ 1.5 million (1.2 million euros) back.
The crooks posed as intermediaries for super-rich clients looking for a cruise ship.
Newsletter The essential of 92
A tour of the Hauts-de-Seine and the IDF news
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
After negotiations and meetings in major hotels, it was decided to deliver a deposit of 3.5 million dollars (3 million euros) in Paris.
With the payment of a tidy retrocommission for intermediaries.
The owner of the boat released 1.5 million.
But the deposit of 3.5 million consisted only of counterfeit bills.
"Its role is to carry suitcases of tickets"
In all, the team of drawers is suspected of eight "rip deals" committed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore.
A year after the crackdown in March 2018, five other suspects were arrested and indicted, also in the open judicial investigation, in particular, for fraud and money laundering in an organized gang.
And on February 21, 2021, the wife of the pillar of the organization - still at large - was intercepted at Roissy airport with 25,000 euros in cash.
"Its role is to carry suitcases of tickets", blows a source close to the case.
Moreover, this woman had already been arrested with pockets lined with tens of thousands of euros in 2014, in Spain.
Proof that the business was juicy, she owns an apartment on the Promenade des Anglais, in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) and has a more modest address in Villemomble (Seine-Saint-Denis).
In all, in this case which therefore today involves thirteen suspects, the investigators seized watches and luxury cars, jewelry, cash for an amount of 1.2 million euros.
And as many in apartments, in Nice and in the Paris region.
"It's almost conjuring"
Anne-Sophie Coulbois, patron of the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime, describes the "rip deal", this form of swindle with drawers whose authors act all over the world, as "a form of sleight of hand -past ".
“The rip deal business is complicated,” explains Anne-Sophie Coulbois.
There are a lot of elements to cross-reference. ”
LP / Olivier Lejeune
The idea, she explains, “is to organize meetings in luxury hotels with people, who want to sell a diamond.
The crooks act according to a controlled staging and make the diamond disappear in a box or a rigged table.
This is the
rip deal
table
”.
This table is made up of trapped drawers, where you can even hide a man.
The crook is invisible, the victim puts his diamond in a box on the table, he disappears in a drawer.
“For currency exchanges, we present a few real banknotes and then the one inside replaces everything with fake banknotes,” explains Anne-Sophie Coulbois.
It's almost conjuring.
"
Are there many such cases?
" Not that much.
But the operating mode is known and it is a constant criminality, continues the boss of the OCRGDF.
Investigations are difficult.
For the one we are talking about, we are dealing with highly mobile drawer teams, which operate all over the world.
There are a lot of elements to cross-check, victims who do not always file a complaint.
But three years after the first arrests, suspects are still being arrested.
"