The man who was worth 100 million

"Gad" Chetrit has just been sentenced to eight years in a scam that cost the tax authorities 385 million euros.

At 48, Gerard Chetrit, alias "Gad", is perhaps one of the greatest white-collar robbers of all time. This Marseillais, long settled in Israel, has orchestrated a huge tax fraud on the European market of the rights to pollute, depriving the State of 385 million euros of VAT. This hold-up would have allowed him to amass a fortune estimated at 100 million dollars (85 million euros). Including a luxury apartment in one of Tel Aviv's Yoo towers, a sublime 34-meter yacht, the Black and White, bought for 7.5 million euros, and one of the world's most expensive cars, the very sporty Pagani Huayra.

Judged at the beginning of the year, in Paris, alongside 35 accomplices in the case known as "carbon Marseille", Gad Chétrit has just received a heavy sentence, pronounced Wednesday, May 23 by the Criminal Court: eight years prison and 10 million euros fine. It was in solitary confinement, in a cell in the prison of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), that he became aware of this judgment. "All defendants think him rich, which puts him in danger, explains his lawyer Erick Campana to L'Express, which is why he is in solitary confinement."

Until then, however, the man had not defrayed the police chronicle. Neither judicial: his record includes only one old conviction for tax evasion and two others for driving while intoxicated. This native of Haifa, Israel, who grew up in Marseille, left his first wife and the Phocaean city in 2005 to return to the Holy Land. He is then head of the Henning Company, based in the Isle of Man, which sells wholesale phones.

Betrayed by his voice

The second life of Chetrit begins under happy auspices. He is married to Natalie Vanono, the daughter of a wealthy Israeli businessman. And embarks on a new business, much more lucrative than telephony: a variant of VAT fraud, this worn-out scam which consists of buying a good abroad, tax free, then to sell it in France, taxes included this time, but without paying VAT back to the tax authorities. Applied to tons of CO2 that have been traded since 2005 in the European Union in the form of rights to pollute, this martingale thus offers a return of 19.6% (the amount of VAT until 2014). Who says better ? Especially since the operation can be repeated many times.

It was his voice that caused the loss of Gad. On a record of purchase and sales orders placed with the broker Orbéo. And on the phone tapping. Chetrit is very talkative. Obsessed by the investigation entrusted to the National Service of Judicial Customs, he warmed his four lines (one English and three Israeli) to keep himself informed. And try, with his accomplices, to hinder the work of justice.

He often calls the Corso-Marseillaise Christiane Melgrani, aka "the Godmother of the Basket", a former math teacher at the heart of this CO2 scam. "In the course of its conversations with (it), Gad Chetrit confirmed his implication in the operations of trade of carbon rights until March 2009", points the order of return in court, which L'Express consulted. Above all, "he exposed his fears that his voice would be recognized on Orbeo recordings". He is willing to pay Melgrani a million euros if she manages to make them disappear, as she proposes.

One hundred bank accounts

His "expensive" way of life amazes the investigators. Back in Europe with his wife and three children, he lives in Monaco, in a luxury apartment with a monthly rent of 44,000 euros. The SME Chetrit pays about fifteen people: four house employees and six babysitters, as well as several henchmen to help Gad manage his business. Like his brother Robert, paid 10,000 euros a month. Chétrit also maintains his mistress Nargysa, based in Dubai with their son.

On the Rock, Gad gets up early in the afternoon, gets bored and drinks dry. His wife Natalie claims never to have seen him work. He prefers to travel from Tel Aviv to London or Los Angeles. Sometimes he takes up residence in a Monaco palace, Monte Carlo Bay or Fairmont, under a false name. His real estate and furniture heritage allows him all the follies. In addition to his apartment in the Yoo Tower valued between 15 and 20 million euros, his many luxury cars and his yacht, he has a villa in Israel estimated at 4.4 million. He is also the beneficiary of a hundred bank accounts, credited with more than 80 million euros in total, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Guernsey, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Bahamas. "Gerard Chetrit has made a lot of money with his phone company Henning," says his lawyer Erick Campana, "a good manager who has made a lot of successful investments."

If possible, he would do it again

On April 5, Gad was arrested at home in the Principality of Monaco. Faced with the customs, the one who presents himself as "international financier" recognizes his participation in the CO2 scam. He claims to have been recruited as a trader by Eric Castiel, aka "Extreme-Unction", a childhood friend from Marseille, on behalf of mysterious clients. He also said he had invested his personal funds in this scam, and then made his profits grow by granting loans at rates of 7 to 8%. In total, he would have raised 30 to 35 million euros.

The investigators, they are convinced that the Castiel-Chetrit duo led the operations with the support of Christiane Melgrani. And that Gad would hit the jackpot with CO2. "He was one of the first beneficiaries of the scam", decides the order of reference to the court. The person knows it: he lost the game. "We are at the end of the road", he confided to one of his lieutenants in December 2015. And yet, he assured him then, if it was again, he would still do it again ...

SAISI