He presents himself as a "repentant and" ruined "crook.
He is also the designer of the “heist of the century”, the incredible carbon tax scam that cost the public treasury more than 1.5 billion euros.
Grégory Zaoui, 49, "unemployed in search of a job in IT", now pays 400 euros per month to the State to pay his abysmal debt.
During his legal career, the forty-year-old was thus ordered to repay, jointly and severally with eleven co-authors, the sums of… 25 million euros in one case, and 8.6 million euros in another.
However, in the coming months, Grégory Zaoui could in turn obtain a sum of money from the State… In question, a failure of justice which earned him to spend eight months too long in detention.
Grégory Zaoui, released during the summer of 2020 and placed under an electronic bracelet until recent days, should thus have, according to a judgment of the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation rendered on January 13, 2021, be released from prison on the 3rd October 2019.
Courier, importer of Cadillacs, Levi's ...
In the coming weeks, his lawyer, Me Samuel Habib, intends to turn to justice in order to obtain compensation for his client.
"We are not in the United States and he should not get millions of euros, blows a judicial source.
But he has a good chance of touching a few thousand euros ... even if he owes millions.
"
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Courier, head of the cloakroom in a nightclub, importer of Cadillacs or Levi's jeans, Grégory Zaoui had already lived several lives when he was the first to spot, in 2006, a huge loophole in the pollution quotas set up in European scale.
The scheme is simple: thanks to his companies, he buys tax-free carbon allowances abroad that he resells all taxes included in France… pocketing the 19.6% VAT due to the State.
In a few weeks, millions of euros spiral out of control and end up in the pockets of crooks.
"My run, I made it near the courthouse"
In March 2009, Tracfin, Bercy's anti-money laundering unit, finally detected the fraud.
Grégory Zaoui, its creator, was imprisoned in December 2009. His first stay in prison, where he spent nearly four years interspersed with sometimes fantasized runs and deposits impossible to pay.
Released on bail in August 2011, he fled when justice changed his mind and asked him for 6 million euros instead of the 125,000 euros already paid.
In March 2016, he went to the authorities for the first time after the arrest of his wife, then disappeared again in July 2017. “I was really not far away, I was on the run in Paris, a few hundred meters from the courthouse, ”assures the forty-something.
385 million stolen from the tax authorities in the “Marseille” section
In his absence, Grégory Zaoui, who "has never got rich unlike some", is sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in two of the biggest carbon tax scams: the Twilight case - 146 million euros diverted - then the section known as “Marseilles”, relating to 385 million stolen from the tax authorities.
In February 2019, "tired of this life which is not one", he went to the national financial prosecutor to be imprisoned.
Behind the scenes, his lawyer does everything to get him out of prison.
On October 3, 2019, the Paris Sentencing Tribunal (TAP) accepts the conditional release of the scammer.
The same day, the general prosecutor's office filed a suspensive appeal and prevented his release.
"There was a desire to keep me in prison, to make me pay," says Grégory Zaoui.
I was a model prisoner, I compensate the state every month, I even had the promise of a job when I left prison.
"
Zaoui would receive a few tens of thousands of euros
Four months later, on January 23, 2020, the penalty enforcement chamber decided to keep him in prison.
An error, has just decided the Court of Cassation.
By waiting so long before considering the appeal of the prosecution, justice has exceeded the legal deadlines.
"It follows that the judgment of the court of the application of sentences dated October 3, 2019 will be implemented", concludes the Court of Cassation.
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Clearly, Grégory Zaoui should have been granted parole in October 2019. “Retroactively, Mr. Zaoui was therefore detained for ten months without rights or titles, denounces his lawyer, Me Samuel Habib.
In addition, one should not confuse the damages that it still owes to the French State and the responsibility of the latter which can be engaged by any litigant when a public service has failed.
"
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Grégory Zaoui could touch, in total, a few tens of thousands of euros.
He promises that he "will pay them directly to compensate the state and pay its debt".
Which will undoubtedly never be fully satisfied.