Unearthed on YouTube by far-right politician and influencer Damien Rieu, a video showing a man named Mertel B. and offering training to obtain the disabled adult allowance (AAH) sparked outrage on social networks. The man boasts of receiving nearly 1,800 euros in social assistance “without giving a damn”.
The virality of this video, widely shared since Monday September 18, caused the Minister of Solidarity, Aurore Bergé, to react, who announced Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter) that she had “immediately carried out a Cnaf inspection [Caisse nationale des allocations familiales, ndlr] and entered the MDPH [Maison départementale pour les personnes handicapées]“. Aurore Bergé assures that in a few hours, this individual was identified. “If fraud is proven, legal action will be taken immediately and the aid unduly received will be recovered.”
The man, who offers training for 300 euros to receive social assistance for people with disabilities, highlights his own expertise in the field: “I am disabled on paper. I reassure you I am in very good health, alhamdoulilah, I am in very good health. I have my legs, I walk, I have my eyes, I see, I breathe. I made a point – then I’m not going to go into detail because I keep my medical file private. But I claimed my disability, an invisible disability, to the MDPH, which recognized my disability and for which I receive a disabled adult allowance.”
Obsessed with e-commerce
The trick that would allow you to hit “931 euros per month without giving a damn”, according to him, consists of claiming an “invisible” psychological handicap, due to burn-out or depression, and finding an unobtrusive doctor who will produce the certificates allowing you to obtain this social assistance. Facing the camera in a video shared on a public platform, he claims to be able to accumulate several social benefits simultaneously: “I perceive the accumulation of the AAH, the AAS [Allocation de solidarité spécifique]PLA [Aide au logement] until December 31, 2026, i.e. 1,800 euros net per month which falls into my account without giving a damn, without working. Long live France !”
Caught in the act of inciting social fraud, the man behind these images deleted most of his publications on social networks. However CheckNews was able to find many traces of his digital life.
Aged 39, Mertel B. is a man obsessed with e-commerce, who seeks to get rich through the sale of training. He is also at the head of several online commerce companies, registered in Trappes in Yvelines and specializing in the sale of Apple products. On the back of one of his books (self-published and on sale on Amazon) proposing to become rich through online sales, he describes himself as “a pure product of the Parisian suburbs”Who “during a trip to Japan, wanting to isolate himself from his pessimistic suburbs, […] discovered by chance how e-commerce works”.
Selling his legend, he assures that on his return to France, “he tries to apply, with more or less success” what he learned in Japan “until it adapts the dropshipping business model”. Boasting of having tripled his salary in three months and of having generated his first 500,000 euros in turnover in barely a year, he claims to have told his boss the truth before getting fired on the spot. -field. “But as Mertel likes to say, it was he who fired his boss”he exclaims on the back of the book.
With the pseudonym “Dropmarket Empire” on YouTube, Mertel B. promotes “drop-shipping”, this internet sales practice, for which the seller is only responsible for the marketing and sale of the goods. It does not take care of the shipping of the product which is done directly by the supplier to the end consumer. To ensure maximum revenue, the seller will buy inexpensive products from Chinese suppliers which he resells at a much higher price to his customers. Popular on social networks, where trainers promising to easily become a millionaire abound, this practice is considered legal by the DGCCRF.
“Tax arrangement”
For sums ranging from 197 euros (for training) to 697 euros (for the same training and seven hours of coaching), Mertel B. offers to learn “to do e-commerce without a website and without an advertising budget» and thus launch into drop-shipping. Among the different modules offered, the trainer also teaches “creation of offshore company in the United States”, “the tax arrangement to be a French tax resident and not pay taxes”, “obtain stock financing when you are banned from banking” or “get a loan when you have no income”.
In addition to these training courses, available on a site in his name, Mertel B. also offered to sell his knowledge on other platforms such as the service sales site Come Up (where he sold his training to defraud the AAH) or the freelance recruitment platform Malt, where it is sold as “Retail Media Consultant & Marketplace Expert” for 2,000 euros per day. On Malt, he presents himself as a graduate since 2022 of a Master of Commerce from the University of Paris-Est Créteil and a degree in economics and management from IAE Gustave Eiffel, a management school located in Créteil.
Not limiting his dissemination of knowledge to videos published on YouTube, Mertel B. is also the author of several e-books. On the back of Urban Free Zones: tax haven in France. How to pay up to 0 euros in taxes in France by setting up in a ZFUhe says that“he carries out entrepreneurial activities in which he had to make tax arrangements (sic) to reduce his taxes. In order to minimize his corporate tax, he moved to a ZFU in Trappes.” In one of his videos, he assures that his company Mapomverte benefits from the “Solidarity company of social utility” approval. Contacted by CheckNewsMertel B. did not respond to our requests.
