Fourteen people suspected of having participated in a vast network of sleep merchants, in Lyon and in several cities of the periphery, will be tried from Monday until October 15. The number of victims, housed in unworthy conditions between 2012 and 2017, amounted to around a hundred people.
The method of this network consisted in dividing housing into several reduced parts, in order to increase the number of rentals and offer them to people or families in vulnerable situations, often in an irregular situation.
Housing of 10 to 15 square meters
In Vaulx-en-Velin, for example, two apartments have been modified to create 17 housing units with a surface area of 10 to 15 square meters. Created by several members of the same family of Tunisian origin, the network has acquired several buildings and apartments, in Lyon, Saint-Fons, Saint-Priest, Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux.
The case revealed the use of several SCIs and building companies to launder funds collected in rentals. The suspects also offered illegal foreigners “packs” of false employment contracts and payslips, priced at 900 euros, in order to obtain social benefits. Forty people have benefited from this fraudulent system, according to the survey.
Underground hairdressing salons
The control of a hairdressing salon triggered the whole affair in 2014. The Lyon courts discovered the existence of a dozen completely illegal hairdressing salons, charging very low prices at 10 euros a cut, and employing hairdressers without a residence permit. Undeclared, the establishments would have reported 500,000 euros per year to the main organizer, suspected of having then invested the money in illegal housing.
The defendants, aged 21 to 54, are being prosecuted for “subjecting vulnerable people to undignified accommodation conditions”, “organized gang fraud”, “money laundering”, “hidden work” and “assistance with irregular stay”. The metropolis of Lyon is a civil party in the lawsuit, as well as a bank, the victim of a non-repayment of a loan.