Their sentences range from 10 months in prison, suspended, to 30 months in prison for having defrauded joint professional training bodies between 2009 and 2014. The total damages were estimated at around three million euros over the period.
Fourteen people were sentenced in Paris on Wednesday to prison terms ranging from 10 months suspended to 30 months firm for having defrauded joint professional training organizations between 2009 and 2014. The directors of companies that offered training within the companies were found guilty of having submitted fraudulent invoices to the OPCA (approved joint collection organizations) so that they would pay them undue amounts.
Some training courses were thus inflated (they actually had fewer hours or trainees), others actually covered a different subject than the title (tutoring instead of a language course, training in managing a campsite instead of office automation, etc.), according to the judgment consulted by AFP. The money paid was sometimes used to finance purchases (for example, computer equipment, household appliances) or to pay employees instead of financing training, according to the same source.
Damage estimated at three million euros
The 13th correctional chamber of the Paris court distinguished four groups of defendants and found almost all of them guilty of fraud with the aggravating circumstance of organized gang. The total damage was estimated at approximately three million euros over the period. The heaviest sentence – 30 months in prison and a fine of 16,000 euros – was handed down to one of the managers of a training company, the only person absent from the trial that took place in June.
An arrest warrant was issued against him, as against three other defendants sentenced to 5 years in prison, including two years firm converted into semi-liberty, as well as a fine of 45,000 euros. Bans on management, up to 15 years, were also handed down. Three women, found guilty of having had a commercial activity under the guise of being a trainer, were given 15 months suspended prison sentences and a fine of 2,000 euros.
The court particularly stressed that “The funds swindled came from compulsory deductions”. “To defraud the OPCA is to steal from all companies and therefore from employees”said President Guillaume Daieff in making the decision. The evolution of the legislation from 2014 is “in part” due to the fraud in this case, the judgment also underlines. At the time, there were about twenty OPCA, which became OPCO (skills operators) in 2018. Reduced to eleven, the latter no longer collect contributions (they are transferred to Urssaf).
