CEO Sadri Fegaier sentenced to prison for deceptive commercial practices

This Tuesday, December 17, the CEO of the Indexia group was found guilty of deceptive commercial practices. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison, including 16 months and a fine of 300,000 euros, as part of a vast fraud case. His conviction is linked to thousands of requests for termination and reimbursement of insurance contracts for their multimedia devices.

The ax has fallen for Sadri Fegaier, the Drôme CEO of the Indexia group. He appeared at the end of September before the Paris Criminal Court. Justice has just sentenced him this December 17 to a sentence of two years in prison, including 16 months in prison. At the end of the deliberations, Sadri Fegaier and his lawyers left the courtroom without commenting.

The Paris criminal court also sentenced six companies in the group to fines ranging from 150,000 euros to 1.5 million euros.

However, the court did not order the provisional execution of the prison sentence as requested by the prosecution during the hearing. The farm part cannot be convertedet eight months in prison remaining are accompanied by probationary stay for two yearsduring which Sadri Fegaier will have to reimburse the victims and the public treasury, said the president, who read the decision for two hours. In addition to the obligation to compensate the victims, the former CEO owes more than 14 million euros to Urssaf.

The 45-year-old businessman also receives 300,000 euros fine and a banned from running a business for five years. The Paris Criminal Court qualified the case as“exceptional”in view of the thousands of victims in this case.

“It’s truly an exemplary sentence,” 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.

“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 representative from Indexia, Nicolas Zeimetz.

The sentence handed down took into account the fact that Sadri Fegaier did not express “no question” in “at no time demonstrated any desire for amendment” during the trial, underlined the magistrate.

This is one of the largest scams ever tried in France. For almost ten years, between 2014 and 2023, Sadri Fegaier, with the companies SARL SFK Group, SFAM Celside Insurance, Foriou, Cyrana, Hubside and Serena, are suspected of having improperly subscribed to thousands of consumers insurance contracts for their phones and computers.

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. . The amount of unsatisfied reimbursements was estimated at nearly 22 million euros by the courts.

The court considered that the group had pursued, for almost 10 years, “its tort practices to ensure the maintenance of its growth and turnover”. “The disloyalty of the practices highlighted was the very condition for the survival of society,” he estimated.

The 45-year-old businessman as well as the companies SARL SFK Group, SFAM Celside Insurance, Foriou, Cyrana, Hubside and Serena appeared at the end of September in Paris. They were accused in particular of having developed a complex procedure aimed at discouraging them from their requests for termination or reimbursements.

Faced with the silence of the companies concerned, deceived customers alerted UFC-Que Choisir and sent reports to the 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.

At the hearing, nearly 2,000 people joined as civil parties.

Since the trial opened in September 2024, Sadri Fegaier has denied the extent of the damage. He believes that the matter only concerns a tiny minority of customers. For the civil parties, the argument does not hold water. “He had to know. Of course, he was not the trainer of each employee. On the other hand, Sadri Fegaier created the offers with his main collaborator, Olivier Cotte. It was Sadri Fegaier who had control over the entire organization of the “He could not ignore the commercial practices he asked his employees to practice.” explains Nicolas Zeimetz.

This conviction is not the last episode in the Indexia affair. Several civil proceedings have been launched. Several of the defendant's real estate assets were seized.