Court Gets Tough for Fraudulently Emptying the Bank Account of a Kind Relative
The relative of a Monegasque lady was sadly a habitual criminal with a history of several convictions in France and Monaco and having served time in Prison. The lady helped her relative, a woman, and put her up at her home on release from prison and then also helped her by renting accommodation for her later just over the border in Italy.
This kindness was repaid unfortunately with a series of fraudulent withdrawals from the kind lady’s account – using a clever combination of ID, cheques and privileged cards. All told there were over 50 fraudulent transfers amounting to over 80.000 euros and attempts to withdraw a large further amount – that failed because the account was exhausted.
The kind lady had already sought justice, noticing the emptying of her account, but she subsequently died leaving members of her family to continue to seek justice. The culprit contested the facts and also claimed the withdrawals had been consented to and that the lady’s complaint had been triggered by an appetite for vengeance following a dispute. The Court was satisfied the facts supported a judgement of serious criminal behaviour warranting a sentence of 12 months in prison. Given the absence of the charged woman an arrest warrant was issued.
The Court Throws the Book at a Money Launderer with Thick Criminal File
A luxury life-style including beautiful cars and pampering at Casinos was in fact funded it appears by money laundering with a flush account held by an Italian in Monaco – flush to the tune of 4 million euros. But financial authorities tracking suspicious transfer were on the trail. It turns out the mastermind had a thick file in Italy on an array of offenses including theft, violence, fraud, falsifying documents association with counterfeiters – more than ten convictions in all including serious convictions with jail-time. His “box of tools” included changing currency at a favourable rate only to supply false bills to the client in exchange for their good money. And he was associated with a group of “rip-deal” confidence tricksters. Originally arrested in Monaco under suspicion of money-laundering he had paid 100.000 bail and escaped. He did not turn-up at Court to hear himself sentenced to 3 years in prison subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal with a 50.000 euro fine added. A request has been filed to confiscate the funds in his family members’ accounts in Monaco to which he had regular access. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Double Trouble For a Dishonest Deliveryman
Twice the pain for an Italian who had an accident on his scooter. It turned out that in his job as a deliveryman he had been receiving cash payments for suppliers but not turning them in. It was discovered when due to his accident he was replaced with another deliveryman who asked the clients to settle their bills. Confused, the clients declared they had already paid. Not huge amounts in the hundreds in total but dishonest if proven. The defendant claimed in Court he had “lost” the envelopes of money but there was no evidence of this – no note to his employer for example.
He had engaged to pay back the discovered missing amounts in installments and had repaid some but was still delinquent. His employer fired him and thus the Court case. He had a file of a small number of prior convictions in France and Italy including one for transporting illegal immigration over the border. The Court leaned toward concluding he was breaking the law dishonestly diverting money. A suspended fine of 1000 euros would serve as an incentive to break the pattern of dishonest activity.
