Opening in Lyon Monday of the trial of a major network of sleep merchants

Fourteen people suspected of having participated in a vast network of unsanitary housing rentals, in Lyon and in several cities on the outskirts of Lyon, will be tried from Monday and until October 15 before the Lyon judicial court.

The judicial investigation estimates that more than a hundred people were victims of this organization, housed in undignified conditions between 2012 and 2017.

The method of this network of sleep merchants consisted of dividing housing into several reduced parts, in order to increase the number of rentals, by offering housing to people or families in vulnerable situations, often in an irregular situation.

In Vaulx-en-Velin, on the outskirts of Lyon, for example, two apartments have been modified to create 17 housing units with a surface area of 10 to 15 m2. Created by several members of the same family of Tunisian origin, the network has acquired several buildings and apartments, in Lyon, Saint-Fons, Saint-Priest, Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux.

The case revealed the use of several SCIs and building companies to launder funds collected in rentals. The suspects also offered foreigners in an irregular situation "packs" of false employment contracts and payslips, costing 900 euros, in order to obtain social benefits.

Forty people have benefited from this fraudulent system, according to the survey.

The control of a hairdressing salon triggered the whole affair in 2014. The Lyon courts discovered the existence of a dozen completely illegal hairdressing salons, charging very low prices at 10 euros a cut, and employing hairdressers without a residence permit. Undeclared, the establishments would have reported 500.000 euros per year to the main organizer, suspected of having then invested the money in illegal housing.

The defendants, aged 21 to 54, are being prosecuted for "subjecting vulnerable people to unworthy accommodation conditions", "organized gang fraud", "money laundering", "hidden work" and "assistance with irregular stay".

The metropolis of Lyon is a civil party in the lawsuit, as well as a bank, victim of a non-repayment of a loan.