Europe 1 with AFP 5:53 p.m., October 20, 2022

The Criminal Court of Melun sentenced nine Ukrainian and Moldovan nationals to prison terms or suspended sentences for fraud in an organized gang.

They had diverted for several months ADA, allowances for asylum seekers, paid by the French Office for Immigration and Integration.

Nine Ukrainian and Moldovan nationals were sentenced to prison terms, firm or suspended, for fraud in organized gang Thursday by the criminal court of Melun for having embezzled for several months allowances for asylum seekers (ADA).

The court pronounced sentences against them ranging from six months' suspended prison sentence to three years' imprisonment, including one year's suspended sentence, for having brought Moldovan and Ukrainian nationals to France with the aim of embezzling the ADA, paid by the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii) during the study of asylum applications.

More than 560,000 euros in damage

Three people convicted alongside them for complicity received one to two years in prison suspended.

According to investigators from the Central Office for the Suppression of Irregular Immigration and the Employment of Undocumented Foreigners (Ocriest), the damage amounted to 562,695 euros, an amount disputed by the lawyers of the defense throughout the trial.

Also prosecuted for aiding illegal entry and residence, they were released from this charge of prevention.

"Their intention was to bring them to France for the time of the scam, so that they would then return to the country", explained Me Vera Goguidze, lawyer for a 37-year-old Ukrainian woman.

Ukrainian and Moldovan nationals holding a biometric passport are exempt from visa requirements for short stays within the Schengen area.

The director of Ofii, Didier Leschi, said he was "very satisfied" with the court's decision, "especially since it was our vigilance that triggered the investigation".

“Defending the asylum procedure requires being very firm against those who hijack it,” he added.

The government has planned for 2023 a drastic reduction in the envelope allocated to the ADA, which will be cut by 36% to reach 314 million euros, against half a billion in 2022. To explain this forecast reduction, the ministry of the Interior anticipates in particular tighter investigation times and a strengthening of the fight against fraud.