The number of victims is so great that the hearing of this extraordinary trial will be held not at the court in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), but at the Palais des Congrès in the city. Twenty-two people are on trial from Monday September 21, for one month, for a gigantic diamond and cryptocurrency scam. Among the 1,300 victims recorded, there are people ofe all of France, from all social backgrounds and all professions. From the Parisian doctor who invested 300,000 euros in diamonds against a supposed interest rate exceeding 10%, to a couple of retired farmers in Auvergne.
Nearly 70,000 euros vanished, the “life savings”says the lawyer for these agricultural workers, Karine Laprevotte. “They were totally captivated by the person who contacted them, she said. First, it’s over the internet, then it’s repeated phone calls until we manage to convince you that it’s the best investment of your life.”
“They bet 5,000 euros, continues the lawyer. Then, they were followed up by telling them that they were among the best customers, so it’s a speech that flatters you. At one point, my client even told me that he found the person very insistent, even aggressive with him and that he should have noticed the deception at that time, but in fact, he plunged into it. He says to himself: ‘he’s right, he’s getting angry because I missed the deal of the century’, so I’m putting more money into this scam.”
The feeling shared among the victims is the shame of having been trapped. PAmong these victims, we also find football clubs, which are at the origin of the investigation in 2017. Sochaux, Angers, Toulouse (the last two currently play in Ligue 1) were thus trapped by a fake player agent. Several tens of thousands of euros of damage are to be deplored. By pulling the thread, investigators discover that the scammers are also involved in scams against individuals, with websites touting hyperlucrative investments in diamonds and cryptocurrencies.
The sites were designed in Marseille, another part of the team operated from Israel. The money paid by investors flowed to Eastern countries before disappearing completely. The victims are of course waitingcondemnation of crooks. But it is almost incidental for many, and in particular for the couple of farmers represented by Karine Laprevotte.
“The most striking sentence for me in the complaint is: ‘I just hope that they will give me back my money’. For them, the essential aspect is indeed to get their money back.”
Karine Laprevotte, lawyer for a victim of the diamond scamat franceinfo
But it could be complicated. Nearly 28 million euros in damage are affected. The defendants no longer have the money and there is no guarantee fund.
