The “Madoff Boulonnais“, accused of having embezzled 9 million euros by promising juicy investments to the clients of his brokerage company, was sentenced on Thursday June 4 to two and a half years in prison by the Boulogne-sur-Mer criminal court (Pas-de-Calais). This sentence “is the judicial recognition that he did not hide anything, did not hide anything, that he participated in the investigation and that he was very sincere in the regrets he expressed“, reacted his lawyer Me Fabienne Roy-Nansion.
Five years in prison, two of which were closed against him at the March 5 hearing. Prosecuted for swindling in an organized gang, the sexagenarian was tried for acts committed between 2001 and 2012. In total, 72 people filed complaints.
“I wanted to capitalize 170,000 euros. I lost everything“, Alain, one of the complainants, deplored at the hearing.”I have reached the end of what is called the Ponzi scheme. The money I gave him was used to bail out the scammers before me“The pyramid had wavered when a first couple, wishing to recover the money invested, had filed a complaint in October 2010.
Former banker, then insurer, Serge L., had benefited from his “excellent reputation“to create society”VIP Consultant“in 1997 with his partner, GAN insurance agent in Draguignan (Var) – who committed suicide in 2011 when the investigators began to trace him.
€ 4.72 million in damages to be paid to civil parties
But in 2001, the financial markets collapsed after the New York attacks. VIP Consultant then loses 1.5 million euros. “I wanted to warn customers, but (my partner) Pascal B. had much more to lose. He dissuaded me and told me we were going to do it again. From there, it was the descent into hell“, he had related.
Serge L. thinks of rebounding in 2004 when he meets Jean-Bernard B, a businessman who tells him about a gold mine in Africa and presents him “documents stamped by the government and customs services of Burkina Faso“reporting a stock of gold. Serge L. sends him money from his customers. But Jean-Bernard B. does not pay it back.
Also tried on March 5 in his absence, Jean-Bernard B., the subject of an arrest warrant since May 2019, was sentenced to five years in prison. “The two were also ordered jointly and severally to pay 4.72 million euros in damages to the civil parties“, said the prosecution.
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