They are accused of embezzling partial unemployment bonuses during the Covid period. Eleven men have been indicted for participating in a “vast international money laundering network” estimated at several million euros, we learned from the Rennes prosecutor’s office. French building companies sent sums, sometimes “in the hundreds of thousands of euros, to empty shell companies, also French, without apparent consideration and in support of false invoices”, detailed the prosecutor Philippe Astruc in a press release. .
“These sums were then redirected by the” taxi companies “to bank accounts in Turkey or China, to companies in particular for the purchase of vehicles or jewelry stores, with the aim of recovering cash”, indicates the magistrate, confirming daily information West France.
Ten construction bosses arrested
The total amount of laundering is estimated at 12 million euros. More than two million have already been seized “from the assets of those involved”. The host of this network, a 41-year-old man born in Turkey and “unknown to justice”, was arrested at his home in Orne on June 9, and placed in pre-trial detention after his indictment.
On October 5, ten leaders of the French construction companies in question were arrested in particular for “concealed work and money laundering in an organized gang” during a police operation carried out “simultaneously in the departments of Ille-et-Vilaine, Val-d’Oise, Oise and Mayenne. The ten men, some of whom were known to the courts, in particular for concealed work, were all placed under judicial control.