The French companies of Lycamobile were sentenced Thursday October 26 in Paris to a fine of 10 million euros for money laundering and value added tax (VAT) fraud, with the former CEO of the group receiving a prison sentence. and a heavy fine for complicity in this second offense. In a press release, Lycamobile “deplores the decision” And “announces having appealed”. Nearly four months after the trial, the court ruled that the card and phone top-up companies had “knowingly participated in a complex and elaborate system of money laundering”between 2014 and 2016, which involved 17 million euros.
This system “opaque”, which involved a series of shell companies, two Lycamobile salespeople and resellers in the Parisian district of La Chapelle, operated for the benefit of construction companies demanding cash to illegally pay employees. The companies were also found guilty of having ” deceived “ the tax authorities in “misguided” a legal regime allowing exemption from VAT, within the framework of a ” strategy “ to be more “competitive”.
“The money laundering accusations concern the activities of two salespeople who were laid off and fired upon discovery of this parallel activity”reacted Lycamobile, which claims for VAT to have “simply resorted to the regulatory framework specific to the telephone sector, as admitted by the court”. Lycamobile Services was fined 3 million euros and Lycamobile France 7 million euros.
Former boss sentenced to eighteen months closed
The group’s former British boss, Christopher Tooley, was sentenced for complicity in VAT fraud to three years’ imprisonment, including eighteen months – a flexible sentence – and a fine of 250,000 euros, with a ban to manage a business for five years, applicable immediately even in the event of an appeal. The other British leader of the group, Andrew England, was released. The general director managing the two companies, Alain Jochimek, was sentenced in both parts of the case, to three years in prison, including eighteen months to be served under an electronic bracelet, with a fine of 120,000 euros and the same prohibition to manage.
Eight other people were finally sanctioned for having been “links” of this “bleaching circuit”, with sentences ranging from suspended prison sentence to eighteen months under an electronic bracelet, accompanied by fines of between 5,000 and 20,000 euros. On the other hand, the French State, which had requested 7.9 million euros in damages, was rejected: the court ruled that it could not compensate it, not being seized of facts of fraud tax, but a fraud.