on the trail of tax evaders

M6 – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 AT 9:10 PM – INVESTIGATION

The magazine begins in thriller mode. A BRI car (the anti-gang brigade) crosses Paris at full speed, with the trunk full of bags of banknotes seized by anti-fraud colleagues, for an amount of around 2 million euros. Destination: Public Treasury.

With “Forbidden Zone”, M6 does not skimp on staging to compete with “Complément d’investigation” and “Envoyé Spécial”, the two emblematic investigation programs of France 2, which hit where it hurts most in the management of public affairs .

So here, this Sunday, we have a report intended to “question”says Aurore Belser, editor-in-chief of the program presented by Ophélie Meunier: Tax fraud: these billions that escape from the State… and from the French. The investigation, carried out by the agency Tony Comiti Productions, is looking for these scammers who would cause between 80 and 100 billion euros of public money to evaporate each year.

Darty’s plan

At a time when Prime Minister Michel Barnier is seeking all resources to clean up the country’s finances, there is no doubt that this explosive issue will be at the top of his list in Matignon, as in Bercy. “Unlike many countries, France does not have a rigorous assessment of tax fraud”The Court of Auditors noted in November 2023, in a citizen initiative report.

In recent years, the State has certainly intensified its fight, obtaining 15 billion in recoveries in 2023. But “This is still just a drop of water compared to the magnitude of the phenomenon”says the report, which has infiltrated these professions for which “Hiding income to evade taxes is an ancient and uninhibited practice…”

Highlight of the 90 minutes: Darty. The famous “contract of trust” would have “leadership on the wing”the voiceover jokes. A journalist, with a hidden camera, poses as an import-export specialist who wants to buy wholesale and pay in cash for televisions, appliances, smartphones, etc. for amounts much higher than the 1,000 euros that the law has imposed since 2015 to prevent money laundering. “We gladly do this all the time.”responds the director of a Darty store in Ile-de-France, in 2021. The trick to making cash payment “untraceable”? The multiplication of 1,000 euro bills by Darty gift cards…

The media were put on the trail of this “open secret” by a company employee, Haziz Faddel, officially recognized as a whistleblower by public authorities, although his status could be questioned by the labor court. He tells how, amazed by these “suitcases full of bills” who came mostly from African countries, in “scenes worthy of the best thrillers”alerted management in 2017. In vain. After procrastinating, the brand (acquired by Fnac in 2016) ended up recognizing “abnormalities (…) immediately reported to the Public Ministry.”. Then, when they file a complaint, believing that they are victims of “a few dishonest employees allied with some external criminal networks in a very limited number of stores”.

Consulting companies

After a detour through other cases of “serial scammers” − such as the founder of Geo France Finance, who, among other things, “forgot” to pay VAT… but not to buy a collection of Porsches and a yacht −, the documentary takes us through to Andorra. Even if the Pyrenean principality tries to shed its reputation as a tax haven (it was removed from the OECD “grey” list in 2010 and renounced its banking secrecy in 2016), it remains “The Dorado of the French rich”. Let’s look at these “tax optimization” and “asset management” consulting companies, which are well established there, and which we see here calmly explaining how to “relocate” your money without necessarily domiciling your business in Andorra. “Butter and butter money, a very Franco-French obsession”one of these advisors smiles. Ghost companies, fictitious jobs, fake invoices, anonymous money transporters… the whole range is deployed by these pharmacies.

“Forbidden Zone” involves the topic behind the scenes of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes, whose journalists were able to follow the “painful work to unmask scammers”. For now, the cicadas continue to sing.