1.7 million euros diverted to the CAF(Family Allowance Fund): four arrests in Romania

The four people are suspected of mounting 1,200 compensation cases with the CAF and the regime of the independent of the North. They were at the head of a vast network.

The system was well established and it took time for the investigators to go back to the organizers of this huge scam. Four people were arrested last month in Romania for leading a scam to the Family Allowance Fund (CAF). According to Le Parisien, two men and their companions, aged between 32 and 40, were arrested in Murgeni, in the Vaslui region, with the cooperation of the local police.

Both men were at the head of a large organization whose results are impressive. In 2017 alone, they are suspected of having mounted, with the complicity of their companions, 1,200 cases of compensation with the CAF and the social regime of the independent of the North. In total the loss amounts to 1.7 million euros. An amount that would have allowed them to buy nine properties in Romania. Possessions that have been seized by justice.

False cases and false identities

The scam was based on a simple and effective system. The suspects pretended to be young women who declared themselves self-employed in the scrap metal recovery sector. After the assembly of the files they declared these pregnant persons and thus received allowances of the CAF.

According to the facts established by the investigation, the suspects paid a few euros of the young women who would present their case in the offices of the Family Allowances Fund. If at first they used real identities, they then created fake files with fake Romanian identity cards and fake birth certificates.

The fall of the chieftain

The four people arrested mid-April are considered to be the leaders of the organization. The survey to identify them, which started in 2016, took several years. The members of the judicial police of Lille and the Valenciennes border police had managed to identify some of the criminals who had been arrested in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) and Forbach. Two suspects were arrested in October 2018 at their home and a third, identified, had been released from his prison cell where he had been incarcerated for a child sexual abuse case.

Selon Le Parisien, les escrocs présumés avaient déjà perçu près de 77.000 euros des services sociaux en utilisant cette méthode. Ils auraient également œuvré selon ce principe en Allemagne. Le chef du clan, son second et leurs épouses ont donc désormais été arrêtés aussi. Ils devraient être prochainement transférés devant un juge français. En attendant, ils sont incarcérés à la prison de Lasi en Roumanie.

Saisi