After more than three weeks of debate, the so-called “Red Card” trial, judging a diamond and cryptocurrency scam of 28 million euros, also involving professional Football clubs, ended Thursday afternoon in Nancy, after the pleadings of the defense lawyers. The decision, put under advisement, will be rendered on March 31.
Prosecutor Vincent Legaut on Tuesday requested sentences of up to eight years in prison for the 22 defendants, with only one escaping a prison sentence.
Given the impressive number of civil parties, more than 900, and lawyers, who were 150 involved in this case, the courts rented the Nancy Convention Center for the hearings.
The vast performance hall, however, was never very full: at most, around sixty victims came to hear their lawyers plead last week.
In total, more than 1,300 individuals were duped by websites into falsely believing that they were investing in bitcoins or diamonds between 2016 and 2019.
Football clubs also suffered, six of them (Lorient, Marseille, Brest, Rennes, Nantes and Dijon) from attempted fraud in 2017. Three others (Sochaux, Angers and Toulouse) were defrauded of sums ranging from €10,000 to €35,000.
A tenth of the damage seized by the courts
It was these scams against football clubs that launched the investigation and brought this vast network to light, as explained by the lawyer for the Professional Football League, Benjamin Peyrelevade.
The “thinking heads” of the network of fraudsters were not present at the hearing, on the run to Israel, lawyers and defendants regretted. The prosecutor also requested the sentence of eight years of imprisonment and requested that an arrest warrant be issued against the man considered to be the leader of the network, Mickaël I., 47 years old, on the run. in Israel.
The scam lasted four years, from 2016 to 2019: the scammers lured their victims on websites where they touted extraordinary returns for investments in bitcoins or diamonds.
The issue of the deliberations, in addition to the guilt or not of the defendants, will also be to know whether the victims will be entitled to damages in view of the harm suffered. A patrimonial damage, certainly, but also a moral one, underlined Vincent Legaut in his requisitions.
During the proceedings, the courts seized 2.8 million euros, or only a tenth of the total financial damage.
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