Two years in prison for defrauding dozens of investors. Guillain Méjane, a self-taught trader nicknamed by the press as the “Madoff of Maine-et-Loire”, was sentenced this Thursday in Paris in a case combining trading on the international market, millions of euros lost and allegedly ultra-lucrative funds in Hong Kong. Kong.
The 41-year-old man was convicted of “fraud, illegal provision of investment services and laundering of tax fraud”, with the court specifying that the firm part of his sentence would be adjusted. Guillain Méjane will therefore not go to prison. The defendant was also sentenced to ten years’ ban on managing a company and practicing a profession related to finance. His house in Maine-et-Loire was confiscated, like the sale price of a Ferrari acquired with NFT funds. Present on Thursday, he did not speak to the press.
1.6 million euros used in personal expenses
With her childhood friend and associate, the quadra convinced between 2012 and 2014 investors from Anjou, in their entourage then by word of mouth, to place nearly 16 million euros in the company Now For Tomorrow (NFT), registered in Hong Kong. While they boasted prodigious returns from trading on the international Forex market, 10.6 million euros were lost on the financial markets according to the investigation. She estimated the amount used in personal expenses by Guillain Méjane at 1.6 million euros, the rest having other destinations.
During his trial in January, the defendant apologized and admitted part of the charges, but contested any fraud. After a “work of digestion” of the judgment, there will be a “work of reflection” concerning a possible appeal, declared his lawyer Me Pierre-Henri Baert.
A “certain cynicism” of the defendant
In her deliberations, the president underlined the “seriousness of the facts”, linked to the “number of victims, the amount of damage”, but also to a “certain cynicism” of the accused “who clearly made the deliberate choice to exercise this very risky activity (…) without any approval, without skills and by voluntarily placing oneself outside of any supervision.” She also noted the “singularity” of this case, due to the “personality” of Guillain Méjane, born without legs and an arm, who “as his lawyers pointed out, undoubtedly made his disability a force, whose particular charisma all the victims have underlined.”
The court considered that the defendant had indeed used “fraudulent maneuvers”, both in the NFT commercial brochure and in the weekly newsletters sent to customers, which “gave confidence” to new investors.
Released from prosecution for complicity in fraud
Around sixty investors had joined as civil parties, like the State, and had requested around six million euros. In the end, one party withdrew and 41 obtained compensation, but at 40% of their damage, the magistrates ruling that they had committed “culpable negligence”, in essence that they had signed the contracts too lightly. NFT. The total amount thus amounts to 1.26 million euros in damages and legal fees.
The former associate of Guillain Méjane, Gaëtan O., was acquitted of prosecution for complicity in fraud, the court considering that he was not aware of the NFT losses. He was nevertheless sentenced to two years in prison with suspended probation and a fine of 50,000 euros for the two other same offenses.