Five men indicted for vast social fraud in the construction industry in Nantes

Among the five accused, of Turkish and Georgian nationality, two were placed in pre-trial detention and the others under judicial supervision, added the public prosecutor of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, confirming information from the newspaper Presse-Océan.

A preliminary investigation was opened by the JIRS (specialized interregional jurisdiction) prosecutor's office in Rennes at the end of May 2023 for covert work in an organized gang, aggravated money laundering, forgery and use of forgery as well as misuse of corporate assets.

This investigation revealed "that a company manager domiciled in Nantes headed a fraudulent organization allowing numerous construction companies to evade social security charges via five shell companies registered with the Nantes commercial court in succession since 2017", explains the prosecution.

In total, around twenty construction companies located in the Nantes region called on these companies which invoiced subcontracting services.

“This false subcontracting represented a cumulative turnover of 11,8 million euros”, for damage suffered by Urssaf estimated at nearly 6,7 million euros, according to the prosecution.