Front companies, false invoices, cars bought on credit then resold and a jackpot of more than a million euros which passes through Poland and Israel: ten people are on trial from Monday in Bobigny for a vast scam.
Among the defendants is Eric Robic, the French driver who ran over Israeli Lee Zeitouni in Tel Aviv in September 2011 before fleeing, and his passenger Claude Khayat.
The two men are not at their first attempt.
Already convicted of fraud, they are considered the masterminds of this new fraud which will operate between 2013-2014 and claim nearly a hundred victims.
To carry out their case, the protagonists will apply a true manual of the crook.
First, they reactivate dormant companies that still have a registration with the commercial register in order to support their credibility with banks.
Tonio "
the scrap dealer
" will provide a down payment of 100,000 euros to help them start their business.
At the head of these companies, they will place straw managers, often relatives like their wife or uncle.
"Manu the Banker"
The nominees will open bank accounts thanks to falsified balance sheets, false tax notices and the complicity of “
Manu the banker
”.
The ex-banker at HSBC serves as a matchmaker between the banking institutions and the members of the scam network.
He obtains favorable ratings for fictitious companies from the Banque de France, a precious sesame to facilitate the acquisition of credit.
Read also "I lived with the scammer who took 30,000 euros from me": the story of Anne, 60, victim of a love scam
Money in hand, a slew of companies, including the main Metals Europe, will be able to buy leased cars, change the plates, then resell them at unbeatable prices to unscrupulous garages.
During searches of the premises of Metals Europe in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), the investigators will discover a clean site of... 6m2, consisting of a desk, a chair and a computer.
The money collected by the sale of at least 18 vehicles (Smart, Mercedes-Benz, Clio) is transferred thanks to a sophisticated financial package to Poland, Hungary or Israel.
The funds are then returned to the criminals in cash for a few commissions to various intermediaries including an accountant, MH alias "
Majax
", the magician.
Getaway to Marrakech
On the back of his employer SAF, a civil party, he will create false supplier accounts with false invoices and will allow the money to be disbursed.
This well-established procedure will be duplicated on other scams by the company Groupe Allianz de France (GAF), which will play with the ambiguity of the name of the insurer Allianz.
The latter will obtain their conviction for unfair competition in 2014. GAF will hire women from the entourage of Éric Robic and Claude Khayat under false identities and pass them off as salespeople.
They will approach craftsmen found on the yellow pages who thought they were linked to a subsidiary of the insurance group and offered them the creation of a website and the provision of a client portfolio for 5,000 euros.
The contracts will never be honored and the scam will offload around fifty companies for damage estimated at more than 200,000 euros.
Cashed checks will be transferred and collected in Poland, company credit cards used for personal purposes to buy caviar or treat yourself to a trip to Marrakech or Tel Aviv.
Read alsoHow to thwart internet scams?
“A poker debt”
In total, eight men and two women, aged 41 to 61, are on trial from Monday before the Bobigny Criminal Court for fraud, money laundering or concealment in an organized gang.
More than twenty companies have joined as civil parties.
The trial is due to end on Friday.
The ten defendants: commercial, accountant, sports teacher, financial director, interior designer or analyst admitted to varying degrees their participation in the scam, some justified it by the reimbursement of "a poker
debt
" .
Éric Robic will claim that he had to return the deposit borrowed from a member of the Hornec clan, figures of organized crime, and "
childhood friend
", after being imprisoned for manslaughter in the Zeitouni affair and for the fraudulent purchase of 35,000 euros worth of shellfish.
