• The dismantled mafia network has set up a scam to invest in diamonds, the damage of which is now estimated at… 30 million euros.

  • Twenty-seven people were indicted, mainly in the Paris and Marseille region and in Israel.

  • Among the 1,200 victims, there are professional football clubs who have been scammed by false transfer orders.

Not all excess baggage is created equal. On Monday, an investigator from the central direction of the judicial police arrived from Israel with a bag weighing nearly 27 kg, filled with… 800 diamonds. An extraordinary baggage which concludes a case of fraud which is just as important and which mobilized for nearly four years, many police services throughout France, under the leadership of the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Nancy. In total, 27 people were indicted, mainly in the Paris and Marseille region but also in Israel. The damage is estimated at several million euros.

It all started in the summer of 2017 when several football clubs, SCO Angers, Sochaux and Dijon, fell victim to the same scam involving false transfer orders: criminals pretend to be players' agents and argue that the latter has changed. bank account.

Their salary is then directly transferred to the fraudulent account.

In a few weeks, more than 80,000 euros are embezzled.

But over the course of the investigations, the investigators discover that this scam is only the tip of the iceberg: in parallel, the mafia network has set up a scam to invest in diamonds, the damage of which is now estimated. to… 30 million euros.

1,200 listed victims

"They promised individuals a particularly profitable investment by offering them to buy diamonds of exceptional quality," said Divisional Commissioner Anne-Sophie Coulbois, head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Major Financial Crime (OCRGDF ) who oversaw the investigations. About twenty Internet sites are created, “salespeople” canvass individuals… To corroborate their speech, they sometimes buy precious stones but of poor quality. "The victims were aware of the scam when they asked to recover the returns on their investment or failing that the stone", continues the policewoman. In total, nearly 1,200 victims have been recorded.

The technical and telephone investigations make it possible to follow the bank flows which pass through fifteen countries as far as China or in the Hong Kong peninsula.

On the spot, accomplices, themselves wicks with Chinese traders installed in France, recover part of the money and donate it, in cash, to members of the network in France.

From April 2018, a first wave of arrests took place, mainly in Paris and Marseille.

Others quickly follow.

During searches, around 600 poor quality diamonds were discovered in various hideouts.

The very people who are exhibited to victims to push them to invest more and more.

800 diamonds under a bed

But for a long time now, investigators have acquired the certainty that the heads of the network reside in Israel.

In 2019, an international rogatory commission was issued and searches carried out in Israel.

In one of the accused, the investigators discovered, hidden under a bed 800 diamonds, of poor quality like those found in France but whose value is estimated between 500,000 and one million euros.

After nearly two years of negotiations, it is these diamonds that finally returned to France on Monday to compensate, at least partially, the victims of these scams.

In addition, 4.5 million euros of criminal assets, in cash or in bank accounts, were also seized.

Justice

Nancy: Six million euros of damage, 85 victims in France and Belgium, a scam of false placements on the Internet dismantled

Society

Nantes: The owners of 1,500 jewels wanted after the dismantling of a gold traffic

  • FC Sochaux

  • Angers SCO

  • Dijon FCO

  • Fraud

  • Israel

  • Diamond

  • Society

  • Investigation