Le Figaro Marseille
“How do you explain that you all get sick like this?”
The question from the president of the sixth chamber of the Marseille criminal court is deliberately provocative. Facing Azanie Julien-Rama, in the extraordinary trial room, around ten people are seated, one next to the other, placed in an order decided by the magistrate. Among them, three brothers, Daniel, Michel and Thierry, and those who are today their former wives, originally from the Marseille region and the Var. Between 2005 and 2017, the clan worked together in several family companies specializing in construction and automobiles. In this context, the members of the family found themselves affiliated to a specialized mutual insurance company, known as Pro BTP.
But one day in 2016, while examining the management of the family's businesses, Pro BTP had a doubt. A doubt strong enough to notify the authorities. When she was hired part-time in 2013 in the two family companies as sales director, Véronique, then the wife of one of the three brothers, received a salary of 6,000 euros per month. A very comfortable remuneration for a contractual working time of 54 hours per month. But the following year, the sales director's salary will increase exponentially, reaching 24,288 euros. However, a few months later, Véronique, now deceased, was placed on sick leave, then on sick leave, after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. At the end of these work stoppages, she receives a total of 9,600 euros per month.
Véronique had also taken out loans for family companies, backed by insurance. However, once the diagnosis was made, as provided for by law, the insurance companies reimbursed the loans. And in this family, the modus operandi seems to be repeated according to investigators. The three brothers and their wives, as well as other close associates or collaborators, found themselves one after the other diagnosed with this invisible illness that is bipolarity, justifying sick leave within the family businesses, then disability, the all against the backdrop of loans taken out with insurance. The three brothers then consulted the same psychiatrist, fortuitously according to their statements on the stand. A doctor who has the distinction of having sold his Porsche to one of his three patients during his therapy. Placed in police custody, he was not indicted.
Also readBipolar disorder: “What happens in our head is not separate from the rest of our physiology!”
More than three million euros in damage
In total, the damage from this alleged organized gang fraud is estimated at more than 3 million euros, including 640,000 euros for the Bouches-du-Rhône health insurance fund alone. Mandated by the courts, psychiatric experts affirmed that the defendants did not present any bipolar disorder, before being contradicted by other doctors.
“It wasn't me who suddenly declared that I was sick
,” complains Solange, the ex-wife of one of the three brothers, who was diagnosed with bipolar a few years after her husband at the time.
I have repressed all my life the fact of not feeling well, of not seeing a doctor, trying to regain control of my life.
“I never wanted to find myself eating every afternoon
(sic)
because of psychiatric problems
,” says Michel, who reports having been interned
. I am at the RSA, on the fringes of society. If I knew where all this would have led me, I would never have consulted a psychiatrist.
The man already has a criminal record peppered with convictions for violence, which he attributes to his mental fragility.
“When I don’t take care of myself, I do extreme things and I’m punished,”
sighs Michel.
When I get treatment, I am told that I am a liar and a fabrication. I just want to take my medicine and be left alone.”
“All my life, I was told that I was sick,”
protested his brother Thierry.
I have attempted suicide and taken pills all my life. Who can tell me I'm not sick?
The trial is scheduled to last until Thursday.