Purchase of cars on credit and false invoices: the perpetrators of a vast scam will be judged

Between nominee managers, false invoices and purchasing cars on credit, the trial of eight people tried for a vast fraud opened in Bobigny.

The Bobigny criminal court has just opened the trial of eight individuals, six men and two women aged 42 to 62, accused of having orchestrated a vast fraud between 2013 and 2014. The charges include fraud, money laundering, and organized criminal concealment. More than twenty companies have filed civil suits, testifying to the extent of the misdeeds perpetrated.

A scam involving the purchase of multiple cars

At the heart of this scam, two individuals are considered the masterminds of the operation: Eric Robic, known for fatally knocking down Israeli Lee Zeitouni in Tel Aviv in 2011 before fleeing, and his accomplice Claude Khayat. The two men, already convicted in the past for VAT fraud, are at the center of a new complex affair which had sparked a diplomatic imbroglio at the time of the accident. The eight defendants, with varied professions ranging from salesperson to interior designer to sports teacher, admitted, to varying degrees, their involvement in the fraud during the investigation. No less than a hundred victims have been identified in this affair with multiple ramifications.

The scam involved purchasing cars on credit through shell companies, supported by false accounting statements. These vehicles were then sold at unbeatable prices to unscrupulous garages.

Nearly a million euros generated

The funds thus generated were then transferred to international destinations such as Poland, China or Israel. The ruse then consisted of repatriating the money in cash, in return for commissions paid to various intermediaries. This scam was also deployed as part of a fraud involving fake websites intended for craftsmen listed on the yellow pages. In addition to the promise of online visibility, these artisans were offered access to a customer portfolio for 5,000 euros. Unfortunately, the contracts will never be honored, resulting in damage estimated at more than 200,000 euros for around fifty defrauded companies, in addition to the money generated by the car “purchase-resale” process. In total, the scam would have allowed the accused to pocket nearly a million euros.

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