Tours Criminal Court
“I discovered the scam process at the same time as everyone else. » When it collects transfers from its customers to finally convert them into PCS cards (1), Paris knows that this is not ” not normal “. But he closes his eyes and does it. “When there’s money to be made, I take it.”, he explains. The 41-year-old man was tried by the Criminal Court of Tours (Indre-et-Loire), Tuesday June 11, 2024, for money laundering, between November 2019 and December 2020.
At that time, he ran a wine and spirits purchasing business. The self-employed person explains that customers place large orders, worth several tens of thousands of euros. Payments are made by transfer. The same customers then backtrack and ask Paris to make PCS card purchases to reimburse the amount. Already convicted of scams, Paris is not fooled, but claims to have no direct link with the initial misdeeds.
Scammed on a dating site
“I never intended to defraud anyone,” he declared at the bar, without a lawyer. Behind the transfers, however, there were real stories. Like that of a man with a disability, registered on a dating site. He thought he was talking to a certain Julie and paid around €50,000. The young woman, who was in reality a crook, asked him for help. Won over, the man accepted and made several transfers. It was then – notably via the Paris company – that the criminals laundered the money. The investigation was able to determine a link with the accused for €18,000 in payments.
The forty-year-old was sentenced to eighteen months in prison with probation, with an obligation to work and to pay a total of €41,600 in damages to the various victims. He was also banned from managing a business for five years.
(1) A prepaid card without a bank account.
