The ax has fallen: the CEO of the Indexia group, Sadri Fegaier, was sentenced Tuesday in Paris to 2 years in prison, including 16 months, as well as a fine of 300,000 euros, for misleading commercial practices concerning termination requests and reimbursements for insurance contracts for telephones and computers.
The Paris criminal court, which described the case as “exceptional”, given the thousands of victims in this case, also sentenced six companies in the group to fines ranging from 150,000 euros to 1.5 million euros. .
He did not order the provisional execution of the prison sentence for Mr. Fegaier, as requested by the prosecution during the hearing.
The firm part cannot be adjusted, and the remaining 8 months of prison are accompanied by probationary suspension for two years, during which Mr. Fegaier will have to reimburse the victims and the Public Treasury, specified the president, who read for two hours the decision.
He was also banned from running or managing a business for five years, and several of his properties were seized.
A sentence which took into account the fact that the 45-year-old businessman, found guilty of deceptive commercial practices between 2014 and 2023, expressed “no questioning” nor “at any time demonstrated any desire to 'amendment' during the trial, underlined the magistrate.
– “Distress” –
At the end of the deliberations, Mr. Fegaier and his lawyers left the courtroom without commenting.
“It’s really an exemplary conviction,” said Me Emma Leoty, lawyer for several victims.
“It is a decision commensurate with the seriousness of the facts, which took into account the distress of consumers,” added Me Alexis Macchetto, lawyer for the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir.
The CEO, along with the companies SARL SFK Group, SFAM Celside Insurance, Foriou, Cyrana, Hubside and Serena, appeared in Paris at the end of September, suspected of having improperly made hundreds of consumers subscribe to insurance contracts for their multimedia devices (computers, telephones).
They were accused in particular of having developed a complex procedure aimed at discouraging them from their requests for termination or reimbursements.
The Indexia empire, whose holding company and several entities were placed in liquidation in May, is mainly known for having sold so-called affinity insurance in Fnac-Darty stores between 2017 and 2019, but also in its own Hubside.Store stores. .
At the time of their purchases, consumers were offered insurance for around fifteen euros per month.
Years later, hundreds of people have seen the deductions multiply, reaching up to tens of thousands of euros in total, without having signed an endorsement or claiming to have never even signed an insurance contract. .
– “Disloyalty” –
Due to a lack of response from the companies concerned, deceived customers alerted UFC-Que Choisir and sent reports to fraud repression, which opened an investigation in 2018.
This ended in 2019 with a criminal settlement of 10 million euros.
However, the complaints continued, with many consumers denouncing cancellation and refund requests that were never implemented. Justice put the amount of unsatisfied reimbursements at 22 million euros.
At the hearing, nearly 2,000 people joined as civil parties.
The court considered that the group had continued, for almost 10 years, “its criminal practices to ensure the maintenance of its growth and its turnover”.
“The disloyalty of the practices highlighted was the very condition for the survival of society,” he said.
“This marks the end of an adventure which ultimately caused quite a bit of damage to employees since today they are sometimes having difficulty finding work due to the reputation of their previous employer,” reacted to AFP the CFDT union delegate from Indexia Nicolas Zeimetz.
“We can reasonably think that this is not the end of Sadri Fegaier's misadventures with the law because it is a safe bet that the victims, the clients, will continue their actions,” he predicted. Several civil proceedings have been launched.
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