Six companies from the Indexia group, which specializes in insurance for telephones and multimedia products, as well as their director, are being tried from this Monday in Paris for misleading commercial practices concerning requests for cancellation and reimbursement related to insurance contracts. What scam are we talking about? How many victims are there and for what damage? Who is Sadri Fegaier, the man suspected of having masterminded this scam? 20 Minutes takes stock
What scam are we talking about?
The six companies being prosecuted are: SFAM, AMP Serena, Cyrana, Foriou, Hubside and SFK Group. They are accused of having had hundreds of consumers take out insurance contracts for their multimedia devices and of having developed a complex procedure aimed at discouraging them from requesting cancellation or reimbursement, between 2014 and 2022.
At the time of purchase, consumers were offered insurance policies for around fifteen euros per month. But years later, hundreds of them saw their direct debits multiply. The amounts debited then reached thousands of euros in total, without them having signed an amendment.
Problem? No way to contact the famous companies concerned. Disillusioned, the customers alerted the UFC-Que choisir association and forwarded reports to the fraud squad. Which led to the opening of an investigation in 2018.
How many victims have been recorded and for what damage?
The damage is estimated at 23 million euros. According to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, 743,000 reports were recorded between 2014 and 2021. Today, at least 1,500 consumers, requesting that these direct debits be terminated and who have never won their case, have come forward in the procedure.
This is the case of Claire, a freelance photographer who was deducted 26,000 euros. Over the period, the amount of the deductions and their frequency have continued to increase: 47 euros for the year 2017 and up to 18,000 euros between January and October 2023, she explains to AFP.
Approached by phone, Issa Diop, 53 years old and on RSA, agreed to subscribe to a program of “10 euros per month” in exchange for free equipment… which he never received. “I called them several times to tell them that they had started to charge me anyway,” he says. In the end, the man noticed ten withdrawals of 49.99 euros on his account, estimating that he had been debited 4,000 euros between June and October 2022.
And what about the case of Cindy, charged “49.99 euros up to 12 times in the same month”, for a loss that she estimates at 2,800 euros, she testified to 20 Minutes. Or Huguette, 76, who had taken out monthly insurance for 4.99 euros. “The Sfam took that amount from me several times. Then it was bigger and bigger amounts,” she explains. Nearly 2,000 euros the last month, 36 withdrawals that left her penniless. In total, the septuagenarian was robbed of 17,000 euros, she assures.
But consumers are not the only civil parties in the proceedings. Urssaf is also claiming an undue sum of 14 million euros.
Who is Sadri Fegaier?
This is the man who was at the head of SFAM and the entire Indexia holding company. Before falling from his pedestal, Sadri Fegaier, a native of Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme, was nevertheless the pride of his territory for years, ensuring his employees royal working conditions. Good salaries, juicy bonuses, seminars in the sun, luxurious company cars… In short, SFAM was the company where everyone wanted to work.
The “million dollar man”, 44 years old, is above all self-taught, recalls Progress. With a BTS in his pocket, the interested party launched into business in 1999 before building an empire. The kid from the projects, raised in a modest background (a truck driver father and a cleaning lady mother), dreams big. At 20, while he was selling and repairing mobile phones in a shop in Romans-sur-Isère, the idea came to him to launch a comprehensive insurance policy, which would lead to the creation of SFAM, two years later.
The rise is meteoric. Fegaier becomes the darling of the business world. His empire continues to grow. In 2016, while he claims to employ 3,000 people in Europe, he even manages to convince the investment fund Edmond de Rothschild to temporarily invest in Sfam. Married to a professional horsewoman, he also rubs shoulders with the cream of the crop, invited to his stud farm where he organizes “International Jumpins”. 2018 is the year of consecration. At 37, Sadri Fegaiera is crowned “youngest billionaire” in France. Enough to arouse admiration for a resourceful little guy from the Monnaie district.
However, “the company’s business plan had been built on fraud,” reported the Paris Commercial Court during the hearing held last May, during which the liquidation of the group’s 17 entities was pronounced. In 2019, Indexia, caught up in the scandals, had already been fined 10 million euros. Sabri Fegaier now faces two years in prison and a fine of 300,000.