Editor’s Note
This investigation reveals how a Franco-Israeli criminal network, long sheltered by complex judicial cooperation between France and Israel, is now facing accountability. The era of impunity appears to be ending.
For several years, they believed themselves untouchable in a refuge country. From Israel, Franco-Israeli scammers orchestrated audacious frauds. For a long time, judicial cooperation between France and Israel was very complicated. But impunity seems to belong to the past.
A large and beautiful ministerial office with French and European flags and the portrait of the President of the Republic hanging on the wall. A man in a suit and tie is seated at his desk. His face is familiar with his balding head, drooping mouth, and round glasses. On February 14, 2019, the program “Envoyé Spécial” on France 2 revealed to the general public the astonishing story of the “fake Jean-Yves Le Drian.” For several months, scammers based in Israel usurped the identity of the then Minister of Defense by wearing a latex mask resembling the politician’s face.
Between phone calls from the so-called ministerial cabinet and video calls from the supposed minister, several wealthy individuals were deceived. Believing they were advancing money to the French state to pay ransoms for French hostages abroad, they transferred thousands of euros to these scammers who never repaid them. On September 9, 2020, two suspects were sentenced on appeal in Paris to seven and ten years in prison.
In a similar vein, in October 2014, “Secrets d’info” on France Inter told the equally instructive story of a Franco-Israeli scammer posing as a company CEO and asking an accountant to transfer a large sum of money abroad. This type of fraud, often launched from Israel, is now well-known to investigators, even though companies still fall for it.
Another high-profile scam is the VAT fraud on carbon quotas. In 2008-2009, scammers – many of whom were based in Israel – enriched themselves through a very ingenious and massive fraud. Emmanuelle Elbaz-Phelps, a journalist for Israeli public television Kan 11 and the Israeli parliamentary channel, directed the documentary “Le casse du siècle” with director Harry Pines, dedicated to this scam and broadcast in the famous program Zman Emet.
These gigantic frauds, as well as other less spectacular ones, are now being closely watched by French authorities. They were even the subject of a specific chapter in the latest report of the Police Nationale’s Service d’information, de renseignement et d’analyse stratégique sur la criminalité organisée (Sirasco), published in the summer of 2019.
It can be read there that these Franco-Israeli scammers “are numerically few compared to other groups affecting France.” But “their economic damage, both to European states (the carbon tax fraud, for example) and to individuals or companies (the FOVI), amounts to several billion euros. Operating on the principle of community or even family solidarity, they set up lucrative frauds in the 2000s.”
More simply, scammers also use the telephone. With prepaid SIM cards, they install a small software that displays a private number or even a French number. Then, they call individuals or companies in France and show limitless imagination.