These are complex investigations to conduct and tedious hearings to follow. But the number of victims – as well as the amount of total damage caused – is still impressive. On Wednesday, the Meaux criminal court tried six defendants - five men and one woman - for fraud, concealment of property obtained with the help of fraud and money laundering. Facing them, the lawyers of around fifteen identified victims: car garages, hair salons, a hotel…
Me Nicolas Crécy - who represented the civil parties - did not believe in the hypothesis of a disorganized team. He recalled this incredible figure, corresponding according to him to money “taken from the pockets of honest people”, in an amount between 1 and 1.5 million euros. Even if, for each victim recorded (there are perhaps more), we are talking more about a few thousand euros. “We are not involved in a little string scam.”
A thirty-year-old from Essonne was at the center of the debates. Prosecuted as company manager, for having sold advertising inserts to companies keen to have visibility and acquire customers. In exchange for a result that does not correspond to the money paid and sometimes even without compensation.
“He told me he took care of everything”
President Cécile Lemoine questioned him about these questionable commercial practices. It is an understatement to say that the defendant was uncomfortable in court: “I was asked to create this company.” Throughout the hearing, there was talk of a certain Ruben, who would be behind this whole affair. A man never identified. “You say you weren't on the job, right? That you were a straw manager? »
And the young man – a delivery driver by trade – agrees: “I told myself that I would like to be a business manager”. The magistrate questioned him about the business plan that he and the mysterious Ruben had probably discussed before launching. “A business plan… Um… He told me he took care of everything.” Cécile Lemoine pretended to be surprised: “What planet do you live on? You get money, in exchange for doing nothing, and you don’t say to yourself, is that weird?” This is because he had received the tidy sum of 66,000 euros in his bank accounts.
At the origin of his legal troubles: a report from the Belgian judicial authorities, denouncing scammers using the booking site, without his knowledge. Their method: contact companies using this platform, to ask them for “overpayment” money. The companies then sent them the requested amount, to bank accounts... unrelated to the site.
Five prison sentences required
The investigators who looked into these disputed transfers were then interested in the Essonne, who had opened - in Torcy - the famous advertising and communications agency. The fraud prevention services were going to summon him twice, to reframe him. In December 2022, he closed his company, opened 14 months earlier. Before reopening another, in the same spirit.
The prosecutor's attorney Marlène Leroy requested against the thirty-year-old - who spent two months in pre-trial detention - a sentence of two years in prison, including a prison sentence under an electronic bracelet, as well as a fine of 30,000 euros and a permanent ban on running a business. “It’s a pretty unfortunate tendency to hide behind your neighbor. Laundering consists of diluting the sums and the responsibility,” she asserted.
Hence the presence of five other defendants, alleged accomplices, who made it possible to launder dirty money via front companies. Against four of them, the prosecutor requested sentences of up to 18 months in prison with suspended probation, accompanied by large fines and permanent bans from management. Requesting the release of the fifth. The judgment, reserved, will be rendered on April 29.