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It's the scam of the century.
The biggest tax fraud ever recorded in France.
-It's a scam. -We're talking the heist of the century.
The scam is related to the carbon tax
which allows companies to buy and sell the rights to pollute.
The scammers used a loophole in the system.
How did individuals who came from basically nowhere
pull off the heist of the century?
Carbon was the best thing in the world.
It was… I can't even talk about it!
I've never seen, in all the files I've been able to deal with,
such complicated routes.
Hungry people with street smarts screwed over intelligence
from the best universities.
Just imagine, you earn money, get on private jets and boats,
and people come to see you in 25,000-euro suits
and say, "How are you, Mr. Mouly?"
You've never spoken to them.
You're from Belleville. You eat carrots and drink coffee.
How much did I make?
You're crazy for asking me such a question.
The damages totaled 283 million euros.
283 million…
283 million, but there are a ton of fees.
The truth is, I don't know how to read or write.
How do you expect me to know the power of money?
Anyone else would've hidden it.
He wanted to spend it all day long.
We were good. We all took ourselves for Rockefeller.
Since you have a hodgepodge
of financial delinquents, and behind that, real criminals,
you have an explosive mix
that's obviously going to lead to bloodshed.
The trial for one of the most unbelievable scams in decades has begun.
Mardoché Mouly, Arnaud Mimran…
The police consider them lords of scam.
Carbon is a real story.
What do you want me to say?
You have to go from beginning to end.
I don't want to tell you a useless story.
I'm not gonna sell you short.
That's it. I'm free!
SUMMER 2020
HAUTS DE SEINE JAIL
Thank God I'm free.
I'll have to see what the future holds.
I'm going to have to learn what there is to learn
because you miss out on a lot in seven years.
Hello.
My life has consisted of so much adrenaline
and has been so fast and so…
My life passed me by. I'm 55 now.
I'm jealous of people who work like normal.
Today, I have an electronic bracelet.
I leave at 8:00 and come home at 8:00.
FREE DURING THE DAY
INCARCERATED AT NIGHT
Damn it. I'm losing my hair.
Oh no!
Are you going to a tanning salon or not?
-What? -You look kind of pale.
Yeah, I'm tired. You're funny.
No, what you've chosen is all beige.
Yeah, I'm sick of black. I want to change colors a little.
When you wear beige, it makes you look sick.
Red will give you a boost, okay?
This is a piece I call "strong."
I made it for Jason Derulo to wear for his concerts.
So this item is strong.
You wear it like this. You put the hood down when you eat.
It's not too flashy?
The purpose of clothing is to impress.
If you want to dress like everyone else,
go to whatever brand and they'll give you clothes.
I'm selling you an attitude.
Otherwise, I'll give you a three-piece suit
and make sure your tie matches your thing…
-That's not you. -Okay, Ju.
If you want to look sharp, you can wear this.
You can wear it with a nice pair of loafers. Got any?
We have to do something about your shoes because they're unfashionable.
-Wait. I got these because-- -No, you got them to throw out.
I came from Tunis when I was really young.
I brought a little sunshine,
but I brought a little Tunis deviousness which mixed with the old timers here.
I regret everything I did.
I'm glad I went to jail.
Well, not that much. Seven years is a lot.
Before, I did my business.
It was the same thing with a little money.
I was able to confuse the banks and businessmen.
I was able to confuse everyone, but it was small.
It was legal.
There were some lies, some not so good words.
But it was still legal.
If you got caught, okay, you'd get a fine.
Can't you see I'm talking?
-No, I'm talking. Don't you see? -It's been an hour.
I swear on my mother's life, two more minutes.
He's asking me questions. I'll answer them and I'll come.
Can't you see I don't give a shit? It'll be two minutes.
-It's been two. -Let me introduce you to Serge Madar.
Sit down, Serge.
Serge Madar who's been in Belleville for generations and generations.
He worked with my grandfather. He worked with my father.
He worked with me.
-Yell louder. -Now he's looking for my son.
What was Marco like as a kid?
Same as always.
He was the same, but in a smaller category.
Then he went up a few categories.
He climbed the ladder.
SERGE MADAR AKA "THE OLD MAN"
Speak. This isn't a book, Serge! It's like you're reading a book.
He was at the butcher shop. He didn't stay with his dad for long.
Yes, I did.
One day, his father was making merguez.
You make merguez with ground meat and all the leftovers.
-And he-- -Wait! No!
-He peed in the bucket. -No! Serge!
Listen, don't put that in.
-Those are things you don't do. -You were young.
Young or not, don't put that in.
Above all, don't put that in.
No, Serge, we're in front of a camera.
No, 42 million people are gonna see this.
What 42 million?
With all the cameras, you're gonna go to jail, Serge.
-I'm telling you. -I didn't do anything.
You didn't?
When did you work?
Can we say what car you have outside? You have a Porsche.
So can we say how you got it?
You're getting minimum wage.
Hey, Dov.
-Hi. -Can I have one of your fricasses?
Wait. Let me get it. What do you want?
What's that?
Nanou! What do you want? A Tunisian platter or a sandwich?
And with that, a Tunisian platter for Nanou.
I'm gonna take this.
Stop bitching. Stop it.
All right, go on.
All day with your accounts. We're tired of your accounts.
You're right, but it's money, my friend.
Yeah, it's money, but we're tired of it. And how's your brother?
-He's good. -Yeah?
I met Marco in Belleville,
on rue Ramponeau, where he worked at his father's place.
And his real job, he was a butcher.
He practiced his father's trade.
BUTCHER SHOP
It was a small butcher shop,
and I remember next door there was a courtyard
where all our friends played cards.
He came out from time to time to see us, and he'd start playing.
His dad would come out, like, "What are you doing?"
He'd go back to work.
But he liked staying with those who played because he liked card games.
He loved all the games.
But it was just for fun.
'Cause we played in the garbage with the old people.
The old guys would steal all our money at poker,
meaning we didn't even know what a poker card was
and we wanted to play to win money.
We played. We lost.
Then they'd lend us money, our money with interest all over again.
Marco, after a while, stopped working at the butcher shop
because he was surrounded by people in advertising.
Really the bosses of advertising.
Then he got an offer, and that's when he started to develop.
And since he was a really talented kid
in terms of speaking and expressing himself,
that's how I saw him develop.
That's when I discovered myself,
where I really learned how to work.
That's where I learned how to be a wheeler-dealer.
That's where I learned how to advertise.
And I learned how to talk to people.
Up to 50,000 merchants would become victims
of this gigantic scam.
Gisèle Ambrosino, painter, was one of them.
Through a company, she bought numerous ad inserts
which were supposed to be widely circulated.
Her inserts, however, only appeared in five magazines,
only the ones she received.
Marco was very astute when it came to making money.
He was very intelligent.
He told stories. We believed him. We drank up what he said.
When you had a way with words and knew how to sell things,
it was easier to earn a living.
I did this for two or three months.
And then I quit right away out of fear.
I don't think it's a job I could've kept doing.
At the home of one of the masterminds,
investigators found a significant amount of money.
There you go. Here we have 510,000 euros.
There you go. That's advertising.
I don't want to tell you more
'cause it's done. It's in the past.
I was convicted for false advertising.
Actually, what I said over the phone wasn't true.
I didn't know.
I didn't know it wasn't true.
Honestly, for real.
Believe me, I didn't know.
I found out after.
Sure, you're always gonna say,
"I didn't know in the beginning. I found out after." It's true.
But believe a wheeler-dealer because I believe myself.
I know you're laughing behind my back, but you don't believe me.
You can't believe him at all.
You can't believe anything Marco Mouly says. That's for sure.
98,9% of what he says is a lie, and 1,2% is true.
DOMINIQUE GHEZ AKA "DODO"
Me and Marco were together 24/7.
We were really close. You could say we were like brothers.
He's someone who, regarding his sense of humor,
could have discussions with pretty important businessmen
or bankers or suppliers.
He's nice. I mean, people found him charming right away.
He's like the snake in The Jungle Book.
I was born poor. I wasn't born rich.
And that's how I advanced in life.
I got interested in humans with lots of money. Why?
Because I wanted to learn about their world.
I started in Belleville.
From Belleville, I was one of the first to go to the 16th district.
Well, the 16th district is flashy.
From the 16th, I went to the 7th.
The truly rich are in the 7th.
After that, I was told to go to Saint-Germain.
There you go. My career was made on that.
I followed people at the same time as my career.
Actually…
I don't know how to say this,
but my career followed the right people.
And I only had the right people around me.
GRÉGORY ZAOUI "THE BRAIN"
I met Marco Mouly in 1997.
He bought my restaurant
so he could partner with me and understand what I did elsewhere.
The restaurant was an excuse
so he could get into and learn what I was doing.
Understand, above all.
Understand and exploit.
We created a company in the cellular telephone sector.
He knew a little about how VAT worked,
but Mouly, at that point, didn't really know
how intra-community VAT fraud works.
Greg is a genius.
I mean, he found a loophole in the phone industry.
I didn't understand a thing.
He did this and said that…
I said, "Great! How much can we make?"
He said, "So much," but I didn't know what we were doing.
Actually, I thought we were buying and selling phones.
You could buy from wholesalers,
who were mainly in Great Britain,
a large number of phones.
Since we're in the European Union,
you pay, let's say, 400 euros before tax per device.
Back in France, you resell them at the same price,
but with tax.
So, 480 euros, but the 80 euros of tax,
instead of paying that to the state, you keep it!
It all adds up when you sell thousands of units per day.
Hello. My name is Marius-Cristian Frunza.
I graduated from Polytechnique.
I did a PhD in the economics of the carbon market.
Today, I live in London, and I work in FinTech
finding solutions in the fight against financial crime.
The creation of the European single market in 1993
opened new possibilities to scammers.
Therefore, goods can pass through countries unchecked.
Obviously, scammers are going to buy, for example, a truck of merchandise
in Belgium for 100 euros.
You transport it to France.
Obviously, there's no check at the border.
You bring it to France and you sell it for 120 euros.
And the 20 euros of VAT disappears into the scammers' pockets.
That's like a business that's guaranteed a 20% margin.
CUSTOMS POLICE
Customs police! Open up!
Sixty million euros were taken from the French tax authorities in four years.
Around 30 fictional companies based in Europe
circulated thousands of cell phones between them
without ever declaring any VAT.
PATRICE AMAR PROSECUTOR
We first saw Mardoché Mouly in reports about tax fraud on telephone products.
From the first reports concerning Mardoché Mouly…
No one calls me Mardoché.
When they say, "Mouly, Mardoché," I say, "It's the cops."
That's how I recognize the cops.
We considered him a dangerous individual,
both publicly and economically,
with behavior that was… We didn't hesitate
to call it parasitic behavior.
We considered them, in a way, as public targets,
meaning people who needed to be neutralized
in the interest of everyone.
I also found myself in custody.
That company was managed by me and him.
But I trusted him entirely.
And let's just say, at that time, management wasn't his strong suit.
I did nothing abnormal. We got caught. I still got three years.
But I don't hold it against him. I was really mad at him for a long time.
But that's passed.
I'm not bitter.
Is that the same as the iPhone?
It's the same. The iPhone I have is worth 400 big ones.
What is it? Is it a fake or is it new?
No, nothing. It's new.
It's 5G. What are you talking about? Stop being crazy.
Do you have any in stock?
I do. I have 15,000.
-15,000? -15… No.
I don't have 15,000 in stock. I have 1,000 in stock,
but I ordered 15,000.
I don't have the money to buy 15,000.
That'll cost an arm and a leg.
Another thing, do you have my money?
-Tomorrow, God willing. -No.
Tomorrow, God willing.
All right. I'm counting on you.
You have my two bags of--
I swear on my mother's life, I will put pressure on you…
like you've never felt in your life!
Copy that, Marco.
No… I don't have a cent for the weekend.
I'm gonna give you 2,000. I have 3,000. I'm gonna keep 1,000 for the weekend.
Shut the fuck up! You have credit cards!
I don't! I canceled them.
I'm gonna give you 2,000 and keep 1,000.
Okay, and when is the rest coming?
End of the week, mid-afternoon.
Then we'll be square.
If you want.
Well, yeah. This is tiring.
Aside from that, what did you do?
What did I do?
Are you back with your wife?
Are you not back together? Are you all alone?
We're back together.
Do you think we can go faster?
-Talk loudly. -Can we go faster or not?
A little, maybe.
When Greg Zaoui steals or scams, he thinks it's his job,
meaning either I'm crazy when he speaks,
or he really is crazy. I think he is.
Hold on a second.
I'm not criticizing Greg Zaoui because I like Greg Zaoui, okay?
But sometimes
I don't know what's going on in his head.
…should've returned…
In 2004, when I found myself in jail
for the business I was in with Marco Mouly,
I was in a cell with an older man
who talked to me about environmentalism
and who said the environmental market was the future.
He went on and on about environmentalism. Environmentalism this and that.
So when I got out,
I took interest in it pretty quickly. I tried to understand it.
Melting in Greenland, the sea level rising two to three meters…
These are some of the realities on the horizon for 2100.
Global warning is increasing faster than we thought.
Floods have affected hundreds of millions of people.
Massive fires have hit California.
It's no longer the time for everyone for themselves.
Our home is burning.
JACQUES CHIRAC PRESIDENT OF FRANCE 1995 - 2007
And we're looking the other way.
We won't be able to say
we didn't know.
And that sentence left an impression.
Several people claim to have come up with it.
Sometimes I even think it was me, but it doesn't matter.
We're in Kyoto.
Thirty-eight countries are finally finding common ground.
Between now and 2012, they agree to reduce
greenhouse emissions by 5,2%.
The Kyoto Protocol highlighted
how complex negotiations are.
The Americans were saying to the Chinese,
"You emit the most greenhouse gases."
But the Chinese said, "Yeah, but per inhabitant,
you emit four times more than us."
So what economists looking at the subject advised at the time
was to put a price on carbon
so everyone integrated and had an interest in
reducing their consumption and use of fossil fuels.
By extending the Kyoto Protocol,
Europe took the initiative to create the first pollution rights market.
Basically, companies that emit a lot of CO2
can buy pollution offsets from those who pollute less.
I heard a lot about a market that was going to emerge.
The pollution rights market, the carbon tax.
Well, I tried to understand what it was about.
Direction, Paris.
We're at the offices of BlueNext,
one of the carbon-offset exchange platforms.
We're at the heart of the carbon market.
This is where buyers and sellers carry out their transactions.
It's very simple. It's about regulation.
If they're ever over, they must buy offsets on the market.
And if they're not over, they can sell what they haven't used.
I asked the million-dollar question.
"Do these offsets have VAT?"
A few days later, I called them and asked to sign up.
The system's creators made two serious mistakes.
First, they over-simplified the process to get into the market.
Anybody, and I mean anybody,
could go off and set up a company
and start buying and selling emissions rights.
I filled out the form. I was the 21st to register.
Second mistake, they made their operations subject to VAT.
Obviously, criminals didn't waste time in taking advantage of this system.
That's still great.
BERNARD PETIT EX-CHIEF OF POLICE
What's unbelievable is the capacity these organizations have
to keep up with the legislation and innovation.
You'd think they're subscribed to Légifrance and read it before you.
Before knowing what would happen between 2008 and 2009
with the massive siphoning off of VAT,
yes, there was a trial run, a warm-up run,
which was done by someone known in the scamming world
and who'd make a first attempt and who knew that it worked.
I did a test with, I think, 30,000 euros.
30,000 PRE-TAX
I buy, I put them up for sale,
and in a few minutes, a few seconds even,
I was credited with 30,000 euros plus VAT.
+6,000 VAT 36,000 WITH TAX
It seemed too easy.
Is there a catch? Something missing?
Because it was too easy. It seemed too easy to me.
I gave the info to two people,
who then spread it to other people,
who then spread it to others.
And from that moment on,
it spreads among scammers that there's something there.
From the test back in around 2005
and the massive siphoning off that started mid-2008
until the end of 2009,
this entire period was used to refine, prepare, and set up the entire operation.
Why didn't we do carbon together?
Good question. Because I didn't know there was carbon.
I didn't know about carbon.
I thought it was oxygen for firefighters,
and that's the truth.
I understood carbon at the end when I was convicted.
So let me explain. At the time of carbon, I was broke.
And when I say broke, I mean broke.
I heard talk of carbon.
And one day, two people came to see me
and said, "Marco, we want to talk to you."
That's how it happened.
"We have to talk to you."
I said, "Yeah, go ahead. Talk."
They said, "We know you're all in on carbon."
No, I don't even know what carbon is!
And I said, "Yeah. Okay, who told you I was into carbon?"
"Nobody knows."
"And I don't want it to be known."
-No, I-- -You're bluffing.
I had to bluff!
They said, "There, Marco. We're making five mil a week."
And they say, "It's Greg."
-Why? -I say, "Show me Greg's invoices."
And then I saw all of Greg's invoices.
That's how I got into this business,
'cause I saw real money.
That's what I'm saying. I got into carbon because of you,
because I saw your invoices.
-There you go. -I didn't know.
A guy like Zaoui
had a registration number at BlueNext.
But Zaoui doesn't trade. He only trades for himself.
He doesn't trade for others. Only for himself.
Why is a trader important?
Teams have nothing without a trader.
They have computers that are useless.
A broker gives access to the market.
So he's the gateway.
Normally, he's required to go through a certain amount of verification,
particularly verification concerning fiscal obligations
of the companies he works with.
Therefore, the broker also gains the trust of BlueNext.
So having a broker who already exists and isn't a company
and doesn't just appear overnight to work in carbon
is an excellent business card to have to get started.
Six months later,
I found the best trader in all of France.
Klapucki.
What did I do? I looked for his phone number.
I found it.
He says, "What's this about?" I say, "I need to discuss some things."
He says, "Okay."
The guy meets me at the Ritz in Warsaw.
WARSAW - POLAND
I'm dressed to the nines.
I waited an hour until 5:00 pm.
At 5:00 pm, he calls me and says,
"Yes, hello. Who are you?"
And then I start talking about VAT.
I say, "Everyone knows you take VAT. You're going to jail."
The guy starts shitting himself.
I say, "Don't worry."
"I have it under control. I can stop you from going to jail."
"I know you don't charge VAT since you're a trader,
and abroad, you don't pay VAT."
"But you still provide an important piece in producing VAT."
The guy was all red, all white…
I had him. That was it. He was mine.
The guy says, "Okay, Marco, as you wish. How do we do this?"
I say, "Here's what we're gonna do."
"Every client that calls you, I'll watch them
and I say yes or no. Does that work?"
Marco Mouly had this relationship with a broker that he found
who was his most valuable cog in the mechanism.
After that, I was the boss.
Everywhere, all the teams, they kissed my ass.
Everyone was telling me, "Marco, you're the most handsome."
Before that, no one spoke to me.
So you have the one who brings the broker, which was Mardoché Mouly.
Thanks, Alain.
And then you have the logistics, which was provided by Samy Souied,
who already actually had some experience
in classic tax fraud
of physical products, dare I say,
and who, from Israel where he lived,
was particularly able to send orders to brokers and the market over the phone
and transfer accounts from a distance.
Samy's always been a brother, a friend.
And we'd argue,
meaning we wouldn't talk for 360 out of 365 days a year.
And Samy grew up a lot faster than everyone else
thanks to his brothers
and thanks to his father,
who was a jeweler in Belleville and had clubs in Montmartre.
He had money before there was money.
How can I explain it?
People want money, but they had money's money.
Marco Mouly and Samy Souied are neighbors. They have family ties.
They're from the same place.
They started their first scams together with the ad inserts.
And they started doing the dirty work for the scams.
They'd pick up the checks from the businesses who were scammed.
That's when they started getting into trouble with the law.
Samy Souied isn't an exuberant or extravagant guy at all.
We know this. He's pretty discreet, pretty quiet.
He's more a guy who's tight with his money.
He was very mindful.
He wouldn't go blowing wads of cash on a night out in Paris doing whatever.
He would've preferred to lock up his savings.
In comparison, Marco Mouly was the opposite.
Samy liked to be discreet, always with his wife and kids.
Then there was my side, which he loved.
My side, which he wanted, but couldn't have.
So we'd hang out with each other.
When we went into serious discussions, I'd let Samy speak.
He'd say, "Above all, stay quiet."
"Not a word." "Okay, Samy, not a word."
"Why did I come if you don't want me to say a word?"
He said, "If I can't handle it, you attack."
Okay. So we get to the meeting. "Hello."
He says, "So, Marco, are you okay?" "No, Samy said not to say a word."
Right away his plan for the discussion fell apart.
But I loved to watch him because I wanted to get into the discussion.
So Samy Souied, after working in false ad inserts,
was under investigation and would have legal issues
because he was suspected of laundering money
that he stole, or actually scammed, with fake ads in horse racing.
He was nicknamed the Hippodrome Big Shot.
He even bought two racehorses,
Jeanbat du Vivier and Kesaco Phédo.
What a horse! What a show-off!
Kesaco Phédo, you've delighted us.
Samy did his aliyah, according to some people,
because he felt he was in danger in France and he thought it was time to leave.
But his entourage also says he was always very Zionist,
very active in the Jewish community,
and he absolutely wanted to live in Israel at some point.
And a few months later, he hears about a "gas exchange"
and asks someone close to him to find out what it's about.
The person comes back saying, "It's not gas. It's CO2."
The people who participated in the CO2 scam in Israel
totaled maybe 10, 20, 30.
They generally speak French, a little Hebrew.
But it's really, numbers-wise, a small world within Israeli society.
Really a microcosm.
And so they really live together.
What you have to understand is, in the beginning,
Samy Souied didn't work with Marco Mouly. He had another team.
He started another team with other associates. It didn't go well.
This was in the fall of 2008. They were running behind.
It wasn't going well. They split up. He was looking for new associates.
That's when Marco Mouly went to see him.
He was in direct contact with the trader,
Jaroslav Klapucki.
Initially, Samy Souied was reluctant to associate with Marco Mouly.
He didn't trust him. He knew he talked a lot.
But Marco Mouly had an ace up his sleeve.
He had a financial backer who could put eight million on the table.
That backer was Arnaud Mimran.
ÉMILIE FRÈCHE NOVELIST, CHILDHOOD FRIEND
I met Arnaud when I was 15.
He was someone who'd always wear linen suits in summer,
who'd have kind of long hair.
It was like Florida in the 16th district.
I remember him as a boy who always had cash in his pockets,
who drove… He loved beautiful cars.
There you go. He was someone who was flamboyant
and who stood out in his world of Parisian Jews
in the 16th district, super classy, super…
He has a "fuck you" side.
I think that's pretty nice 'cause it's like someone out of a novel.
When he married Anna,
he married the daughter of a billionaire,
Claude Dray.
I was good friends with his future wife.
Her name was Anna Dray.
Actually, there were four Dray sisters
spoiled rotten by their father,
who was rolling in money.
Looking back, they were kind of like the Kardashians.
The father could never tell them no,
but he was a good person.
Claude and Arnaud always seemed close.
He was always the beloved son-in-law.
Arnaud played that game right away.
As soon as he married Anna, he moved on to other things.
Would he have married Anna if she had been poor?
I don't know.
That guy looks like Satan with his broom.
You could say a wizard.
He scared me.
Where did you find that guy?
You didn't pay him, did you? You must've, I swear.
Arnaud was someone whose name and reputation I knew.
And he knew my reputation.
And when people reach perfection when it comes to money and business,
everyone wants to meet and do business with each other.
So when Arnaud came, we saw each other in Deauville.
We went out of our way to meet.
Please, Arnaud, come tell us all about it.
Come on, Arnaud!
Look at this playboy.
I swear on my mother's life. Look at this playboy.
This is Arnaud Mimran.
It's him! He's here!
Arnaud Mimran and Mardoché Mouly don't come from the same world.
And the only territory in which they could meet
was actually on the green felt in a game room.
Arnaud Mimran thinks, without a doubt,
that Mardoché Mouly is a fun, mischievous, but inoffensive boy.
And Mardoché Mouly thinks
that Arnaud Mimran is free
from the constraints of etiquette,
eager to mix with bad people,
and immensely wealthy.
At that time, Marco was,
let's say, kind of broke.
He didn't have much money.
There was a third person,
who Marco called and told to come to Deauville.
He wanted to eventually introduce him to Arnaud.
And Arnaud wanted to meet him,
because he'd heard about him.
So Marco got his family and his car,
rushed to Deauville, and they met.
I got to the casino. There was a roulette table.
And I kept playing eight.
It didn't come up.
In the end, I had 10,000 euros left.
I bet it on eight.
And I said in my head, "If it doesn't come up,
I'm taking my shoes and smashing them on eight."
I was there and eight didn't come up.
I smashed it.
That's the shoe story.
Everyone burst out laughing, even Arnaud,
because no one can do that at a game table.
He smiled. That meant he liked it.
He liked the gesture. It was the same for him.
Arnaud says, "Would you like to come over for dinner?"
I get to his house, big table, caterers…
I see bankers, businessmen, everyone.
I thought, "This is my chance to make it all back."
My wife arrives and says, "Marco, this is amazing."
She said, "Man, you better work. I want one like this."
Arnaud was someone who was in the stock market.
He hung around on the big exchanges.
To us, he was loaded.
At first, Arnaud Mimran was a complete stranger
in the world of VAT
and tax fraud.
Arnaud Mimran had mostly existed
in financial markets as a trader,
as an associate at a management company called 3A Trade.
He was the talk of the town, dare I say,
at the stock market operations commission
for making a series of moves that were suspicious.
He was never sentenced. We must be clear about that.
It was insider trading.
Arnaud Mimran had a surprising bad-boy-from-a-nice-neighborhood side.
You could just as easily see him in high society
as with a former ex-drug trafficker or robber.
And then three weeks later, he'd find himself in Tel Aviv
at a charity dinner to raise funds for Bibi Netanyahu's Likud party.
Why were the Souieds and Moulys fascinated by him?
Because Mimran was in another league.
Since he was little, he'd spent time with other people
and had a real list of contacts.
He grew up in the 16th district. He knew respectable and honorable people.
He was part of high society, basically.
He wasn't a fake. He is from that world.
He's from the world of the rich and established people.
The other two, obviously, who grew up in Belleville… No.
They really were fascinated
because they always wanted to be what he was.
And for the first time, they had the means to be like that.
Well, they didn't exactly fit in, but they had the means.
In the beginning, they need to find a way to introduce themselves.
Actually, they need investors
who are going to put up some money.
It's like creating a start-up.
Arnaud Mimran is someone who went through higher education
and made his way through the financial markets.
You'd think he could maybe bring some technical skills as well
since the way the carbon-offset market is run is actually
much more like a financial market
than the cellphones,
which are basically sold in stores.
What you have to understand is this type of infraction, at this level,
assumes, quote, unquote, some financial engineering is needed
to create fictional companies all over the world
and open offshore accounts everywhere.
First off, most importantly, my job was basically the banks,
meaning when it came down to business,
I knew how to talk to bankers.
When you go see a banker, you need to come with a story.
You don't show up with a failing company
and say, "Hello. Would you mind if I told you…"
"Yes. How much turnover is there?" That's pointless.
I arrive. "Hello, sir."
"I'm here as I inherited 300 million euros from my father."
"Well, I'm gonna give you a chance."
"I want to set something up to see how you do,
and if it's good, I'll bring my portfolio to you."
The banker shakes like crazy.
He rolls out the red carpet, but the company is worth zero.
But you always have to give him a good story.
NICOSIA - CYPRUS
One time, I went to Cyprus to open some accounts.
I went to Cyprus. I went with staff.
What's that? I took a secretary. I dress her to the nines, suit…
I buy a briefcase.
It's empty, just a pen and a piece of paper.
I take a fake bodyguard with a walkie-talkie.
But if you blow on this guy, he'll fall over.
But he weighs 400 kilos.
So I get to the bank. I didn't know this was gonna happen.
I thought it was gonna be really hard.
I look at the bank. It has a weird Cypriot name.
But it was like a pizzeria.
The banker said, "Carbon. Really good. Account with us. Really good."
And we went in and opened the account.
In the spring of 2008,
the market was explosive.
In fact, that was typical of artificial transactions
because the only thing all those people were interested in
was collecting VAT without paying it.
People think it's complicated, but it's child's play. It's really simple.
Child's play?
Well, now, let's not exaggerate, but I'm gonna try to explain it.
You've opened two companies,
one in France and one in another country in the European Union.
Your German company buys carbon offsets for one million euros
on the BlueNext exchange.
Since it's an exchange between two countries of the European Union,
there's no VAT.
Then your German company resells your offsets
to your company based in France.
And now your French company
resells it all to BlueNext.
Since both are in France, VAT applies
and you get 1,2 million.
In principle, you should pay that 200,000 euros of VAT to the state,
unless you disappear and you send that money to offshore accounts.
In a few minutes, you've earned,
sorry, stolen 200,000 euros.
And then you start again
and again.
And you circulate that money between Hong Kong, Singapore,
any tax haven.
Some people stopped
after pocketing a few million euros.
But others, like the Mimran-Mouly-Souied trio,
preferred playing to the very end.
Just like poker addicts
who say "all in" every time before they've even seen their cards.
So every day, they'd put in all that they'd earned?
I think several times a day.
Every time you do a transaction, you make 20% profit,
which is still quite a lot.
I don't think there's an equivalent return in the honest economy.
No financial return is that significant.
So it moved really quickly.
So Samy Souied set up a team.
Everyone had a very specific role.
The important thing was not to get caught red-handed.
You had to work all day, especially in front of a computer.
A computer and a phone is all you need to do the job.
The hours were long. And to avoid getting caught, they switched.
For a few days, this would take place in a hotel room in Tel Aviv.
Then they'd move to a house in Herzliya
and then move again.
During the eight months the scam took place,
Marco didn't stay in Israel all the time. He went back and forth.
We know this because we saw his arrivals and departures
in the police reports via Ben Gurion Airport.
Incidentally, we saw he met Arnaud Mimran on several dates in Israel.
He came to supervise.
Sometimes he went to develop some things with Samy,
who he asked to solicit traders.
He was the salesman of the group, so he had a specific role.
From time to time, he needed to be there.
In October 2008, I heard, via word of mouth,
that Marco Mouly was in that market.
I thought, "It won't be long."
When he shows up somewhere,
nothing ever survives.
Bank of France's doors were wide open.
You could go in and fill your cart with money.
Well, yeah. That's the truth.
But, unfortunately, I didn't touch a franc.
And I didn't participate in that.
The judges had forbidden me from leaving the country.
I couldn't go to Vegas or anywhere. I stayed in France.
They invited me, but I couldn't go.
I couldn't join in the fun.
The 777 is a private jet from Las Vegas
that belongs to the Wynn,
and it comes to pick up the biggest clients.
They got us an Oriental orchestra
to amuse and entertain us and to get us into the mood
so they can take the money we had.
We burst out laughing.
We knew we were suckers.
You get to Las Vegas for three nights. "Yes, Mr. Mouly."
"Yes, the Rolls is waiting for you."
You have three million dollars at your disposal.
You understand nothing. You go, "Really? That's all?"
You think you're Puff Daddy.
You go to the restaurant.
The guy serves you a $45,000-bottle of wine.
It's good.
But you don't even know if it's water or wine.
Anyone else would've hidden it.
Maybe he was actually afraid.
He wanted to spend all day long.
It's hard to spend.
I challenge you to spend 100, 200K a day.
The world's lushest palaces.
A maid who stays in the room 24/7.
You get up anytime.
If you need some candy, they put it in your mouth.
You don't want it to end. I always needed something.
I say, "Well done," to the creator of Las Vegas
Well done. It's Disneyland for adults.
That's what Las Vegas is.
There were main characters who were actual people,
and there were supporting actors,
which were Ferraris, McLarens, Rolexes,
and poker tables.
One day, Arnaud was in Vegas with Samy.
Samy lost at least 1,5 million euros.
Arnaud said, "You're not paying for anything. I'll pay."
"It's my treat."
Arnaud didn't give a shit about money.
Whether he makes it or not, he just wants to have fun.
His life is made up of fun.
His life is made up of pleasure.
What does that mean? One day, I was in a game of poker,
and he said to a guy,
"Eat two bananas with the peel, and I'll give you 30,000."
I wanted to eat the bananas.
The guy takes two bananas.
He eats them.
He pays him 30,000.
Ten minutes later, he falls to the ground.
We had to call him an ambulance.
DECEMBER 2008 - JANUARY 2009
-Come on. -It's coming from everywhere.
Vegas is crazy.
They go to Las Vegas and blow millions of euros
that they knew they'd lose that night.
But what did they want?
To be seen losing those millions of euros.
That's all they cared about.
If being a millionaire means going to live in the Amazon jungle
and eating rubber, they wouldn't give a shit.
At some point, they were in a nightclub in Marrakech,
and they started throwing bank notes from the mezzanine.
It's like a Scorsese movie.
Like being in The Wolf of Wall Street or being Gordon Gekko.
Mardoché Mouly said, at some point, Samy showed him a life he didn't know.
He showed him an aspect of life he wasn't aware of,
and it was absolutely amazing.
Jet setting, everything you wanted,
which was really life in a glossy magazine.
When you give me millions of euros,
and I'm talking bills, money,
the truth is, I can't read or write.
I earn money like it's air.
How do you expect me to understand the power of money?
They give it to me. I take it. I spend it.
It's no longer rational. The sums were so huge.
It was hundreds of millions of euros. Eventually, they'd bought everything.
Once you've bought
your first Bentley, the second, the tenth, the fourth apartment,
the money isn't real anymore.
They rented jets. They took the whole family for a weekend in Panama.
The spending was surreal.
When you see what he spends on jewelry, watches…
Carbon tax money is as despicable as money won from gambling.
The process itself isn't brilliant.
That money makes anything possible,
but it's worthless.
You're asking me how much I made?
Would you believe me if I said even I don't know?
So in the case file for this trio,
Mardoché Mouly, Arnaud Mimran, and Samy Souied,
the amount in damages came to 283 million euros,
which is substantial and pretty massive.
BLUENEXT OFFICES PARIS
How did BlueNext realize
there was something suspicious happening on their exchange?
Finding out was gradual.
This is a new market on which no information was available.
DAVID RAPIN BLUENEXT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
And BlueNext and its partners identified, starting in October 2008,
some abnormal activity,
which didn't reflect the reality expected in this market.
COUNTRY: CYPRUS
D.3: SENSITIVE TRANSACTION FROM/TO HIGH-RISK COUNTRY (SIGNIFICANT AMT)
D.4: CARBON - SENSITIVE TRANSACTION FROM/TO HIGH-RISK COUNTRY
Before October 2008,
not many people even knew about the carbon market.
My analysts didn't and neither did I.
So we had to learn everything.
At the beginning of June 2009, when the minister announced
what would be the end of VAT on the carbon exchange,
we were finally able, if I may say,
to make our estimates a little more concrete.
The difference between the exchange a day before and the day after
is what corresponds roughly to the fraud market.
Nothing allowed us at TRACFIN to be aware
that the exchange could be 80 or even 90% corrupt.
When we started to add up
the suspicious transactions we were warned about,
it came to tens of millions.
Obviously, I had no idea, in January and February 2009,
of the impact this would have two, three months later.
RENAUD VAN RUYMBEKE FORMER INVESTIGATIVE JUDGE
I tell you, that case,
I think I worked on it for eight years.
I'm ashamed when I say that because
even if a case takes two, three, four years…
What was hard about it was that obviously we only had a small piece of the puzzle.
We didn't know a whole series of things.
We didn't know what we didn't know.
There was a whole part of the reality that escaped us.
It was like putting together a puzzle
which you know is comprised of 1,000 pieces,
and we had, in general, 20 or 30 pieces in front of us.
However far we got, after six months, a year, we still understood nothing.
There were dummy corporations, many companies involved,
companies that were a front, fake companies,
transactions all over the place,
and a whole series of offshore accounts.
I've rarely seen an investigation
where, from the start, you have no idea who you're looking for.
Who is actually responsible?
The real people responsible. Not the straw man.
I always told the investigators, "I don't care about the straw men."
If I want a straw man manager, it's you.
Tomorrow, you're a straw man manager.
I could go online tomorrow,
type your name and everything,
and I could get your birth certificate, get a passport made, and it's done.
You become a straw man.
I told the investigators, "I don't care about these 50 people."
"Figure it out. I don't want to know."
I didn't find out who they were. I didn't want to know.
"But I do want to know who is behind it."
I didn't go looking for straw men.
The accountant did. He made the companies.
He took housekeepers, mailmen, taxi drivers,
and put them in the company.
He'd sell the whole company keys in hand with the bank.
He'd sell a company to all the teams for 200,000 euros.
Everyone was buying four or five companies a week
because if you didn't have several companies, you were dead, buried
because they had to declare their VAT each month.
Only a small number of companies are subject to a tax audit.
That permissiveness gave scammers the time
to pack their bags and leave.
So there was no need to do the accounting.
You open three companies in Hong Kong, and then as you're leaving the bank…
You know what they give you?
They give you a token.
So that also took me some time to understand.
The token is a remote code generator,
which allows me, the patron,
to do all my transactions remotely.
So with the millions you have in Hong Kong,
you can send some to Singapore.
You can send some to Dubai.
Israel, Morocco, Cyprus,
and go around the world in a day if you want.
With one click.
When I investigate the accounts, it takes me a year per account.
So I was beaten. No contest.
It's magic, yeah,
but it was still too easy for them to make money.
Don't you think?
I don't remember being aware at the time
that there was a flaw in the system
with subjecting the offsets to VAT.
Quite honestly, I didn't know at the time
because I couldn't imagine that something
that should create a virtuous cycle would create a vicious cycle.
History shows us we should never underestimate mischief
and as soon as you allow a loophole,
there are always disgruntled people who'll take advantage of it.
Marco Mouly
Some people make history
And some tell it
I'm gonna tell it for you
Okay, go ahead.
From Belleville to Geneva
Via Monaco
Yet I can tell you one thing
All that is worth nothing
Several people came to see me
and wanted to write a song about me.
And for fun, I said, "Okay, but I do the lyrics."
And I made up some lyrics.
I'm the best-looking liar
Call me thief or crook
But if I pass you and I like you
I will never let you down
That's it. I'm free!
Back to have some fun
They wanted to finish me off
But God didn't leave me
That's it. I'm free!
Back to have some fun
Marco Mouly
Sorry, Mr. President!
I am crazy
I did this for my mom!
Marco Mouly
Mr. President!
I am crazy
I want to make up the time
I've never stayed in place
But I knew how to stay classy
If you look for me, don't call me
I'm surely in a palace
Marco Mouly
Sorry, Mr. President!
I am crazy
I did this for my mom!
Thank you.
He's so funny. He's totally insane.
But I still like him.
The only appreciation I had seeing these crooks
was, maybe, a certain sense of reasonable humility
when you tell yourself
these crooks knocked you down so hard
that it was hard to get back up.
In retrospect, I thought I was perfectly capable of doing it.
Well, I wasn't smart enough to do it.
Except I'm not in prison or dead,
which is an advantage.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2010
I never would've thought
that it would get dangerous.
Not possible. I would've bet my life on it.
That night, I was at a cafe in the 17th district playing belote
with quite a few friends, one being Marco Mouly.
We were there having fun, playing belote,
having a few drinks and all.
We got a call saying, "They shot Samy."
I called someone who said, "Souied was killed at Porte Maillot."
And I left in tears. I went straight to Porte Maillot.
And we couldn't get close.
It was awful.
CONFERENCE CENTER
We all went to Porte Maillot and saw the police, firefighters,
and a body lying on the ground.
I knew it was over when the sheet came out.
EXHIBIT A - VICTIM
I didn't see it coming.
I really didn't, and even now, I still don't see it.
That means, for me, Samy is still here.
It means even if he's no longer here…
We know he's no longer here, but…
Let's stop.
I love him and send him a kiss.
Let's change the subject.
I'd even prefer to.
What are you waiting for?
You don't want me to cry in front of you. I won't.
I'm the proudest boy in the world.
Do you think it's better to be smart or clever?
I think you need to be smart.
They're clever.
What's clever?
It's when they see a fight, they get into it
because they're so clever, they're sure they're gonna get out of it.
When someone smart sees danger, they don't get into it.
When Samy Souied was murdered in Porte Maillot,
it was by two men who came up on a moped and killed him.
Obviously, we all wonder about the significance
of that murder, that crime.
How was it possible? How did we get there?
We got there because of disagreements
between people brought together around this accumulation of money.
When the profits are going to fall,
which today we estimate to be more than 280 million euros,
the money is going to be divided according to each one's role.
That means that Souied is going to say, "200 grand for me."
Mouly, 60, 70.
And Arnaud Mimran, the financier, will get the smallest share.
We're talking 10, 15 million euros.
If at first you agree on an amount
you'll be compensated for an initial investment
and you know the return on an investment,
a little bitterness comes out
when you realize they're not giving you
what you believe you're entitled to.
In this matter, we also discovered certain people
could sometimes be police informants.
No comment.
No comment. Is that good?
An anonymous witness was questioned later.
He would proclaim that Arnaud Mimran felt some resentment
and basically got cocky.
He thinks, "How is this possible?"
"These two schmucks are almost ten times richer than I am today."
"Unbelievable. I'm nothing."
The guys look at him with contempt. They look down on him.
And he can't stand it.
And at first glance, that's where the hostility would've started.
ANONYMOUS WITNESS HEARING
Mimran becomes depressed and gambles away huge sums of money.
He falls into debt, having lost it all to gambling.
Arnaud proposes investments in the stock market.
His reputation gives him credibility.
Arnaud fits the profile of handling it and getting money from Samy
since no one could've imagined he needed money.
Those close to the victim
suspect Arnaud Mimran of being behind this crime.
"The financier" would have eliminated him
in order to not pay back a 60-million-euro loan.
Hit men for hire on a moped killed him with a pistol with a silencer.
300,000 euros in cash and this skull-shaped ring
were found near his body.
This ring was intended for his friend who wanted to give it to his wife.
So, basically, what's the theory?
Mimran won't be able to pay back
the 60 million euros he borrowed from Samy Souied.
He thought-- He would have thought
the best way not to pay the money back to Samy Souied
is for Samy Souied to disappear.
So before this boy goes back to Israel,
he would have set up this fake meeting
at Porte Maillot at the last minute
and indicated who was the right person
among the three or four there by giving him that ring.
That would've been the signal for the two killers hiding out
to designate the victim.
According to our sources,
an anonymous witness gave police precious details.
The lure of profit pushed the simple con men
to hire hit men in organized crime.
Arnaud Mimran…
would've found associates in this matter to kill Souied
since, at the same time, Samy Souied was suspected of having killed
Amar Azzoug, aka "Amar Blue Eyes,"
a few months prior.
And so they say Mimran got in
with Amar Blue Eyes' friends who were also mad at Souied.
Common ground. "Your enemy is my enemy."
"Let's join forces and get rid of the nuisance."
There you go. So that's basically the theory.
That's just the statement of an anonymous witness.
If he'd have listened to me…
-No, don't talk… -No.
If he'd have listened to me, he wouldn't be dead today.
Money made him crazy.
One day, he said, "Nothing can happen to me."
I said, "Why?" He said, "I have too much money."
"Even if they kidnap someone from my family,
I'm ready to pay ten mil to get them released."
He said he believed he was untouchable.
In life, everyone has their place.
A worker is a worker. A thief is a thief.
A thug is a thug. A killer is a killer.
He wanted to jump from one thing to another.
-No, hold on. -No.
This man is going…
-No, he couldn't handle it. -What are you talking about?
That's Samy! That's your friend.
-That's your friend. -Mine and yours.
What am I gonna do?
-You're crazy talking like that. -Why is he dead? There you go.
I'm going to smoke. You're getting on my nerves.
He's dead 'cause he thought he was something he wasn't.
When you're that rich, you have to lay low.
There you go.
Did you talk to Marco about it?
I didn't have the chance to talk to Marco when it happened.
Even now, I don't talk to Marco about it. I wouldn't dare start the conversation.
That's not something I feel like talking about.
Drop those questions.
Drop it. I told you 150 times.
-He's your best friend? -I don't give a shit.
We said we'd talk about Marco.
You're breaking my balls with your CO2 and murders.
You want murders and all that?
Go to the police. They have reports this big.
I was taken into custody ten times!
Don't bother me with your murders and stuff.
I don't give a shit.
I wasn't there. I don't know. I gave a statement.
You can go get my statements.
They're nicely organized.
I'll name the judge and everything. I've told you ten times.
Let's not go for 40 times.
-I told you before. -I don't remember.
Yes, I told you before.
And this and all that stuff. Stop breaking my balls.
Con men aren't violent.
They're not people with guns who hit you
or resort to violence.
They don't know how to.
So they're going to start turning to people they met in prison
and say, "Listen."
"He borrowed this much. He owes me this much."
"If you get back the money, we'll split it."
But you're letting in thugs.
A thug is an animal. He's a predator.
He's not an NGO or an association.
If you call him, watch out.
Once you invite him in, he's not gonna leave.
He's at home. He'll take you for all you've got.
A lot of blood has already been shed in this matter.
The millions have sparked violent jealousy,
and some of the wealthy scammers
still know there's a price on their heads.
Oh yeah. It says it's my wife. Keep quiet.
Yeah, baby?
An hour ago? Why?
What is it?
I don't know. She didn't tell me. Why?
Maybe she ran out of battery.
I'm going outside.
Sorry. My daughter hasn't answered Cindy's call since noon.
We're worried.
Since Marco was released on day parole, I've been worried about him.
Very much so. Him and his family.
And I think he must be a little scared.
I'm even sure of it. Sometimes he's not himself.
Sometimes he's lost in thought. You can see he's conflicted.
He thinks a lot.
And I don't think he was like that before.
He never gave a shit about anything. Not now.
That's normal. He has a family. He's got a wife who loves him.
Children, grandchildren.
Unless he leaves the country.
Somewhere no one knows about. I think that'd be best for him.
COMMUNICATION N. 221 ON DATE 04/19/13 DIRECTION OF COMMUNICATION: OUTGOING
Mouly: Hello?
Mimran: Uh-huh.
Mimran: We're not gonna grow old. Manu is here to kill us quickly.
Mouly: That's what I'm afraid of. We have to go to the police.
Mimran: No, leave him alone…
Mouly: Yeah, but the problem is me. He's going to kill me, not you.
Mimran: He kills you first?
Mouly: Yeah, I know he's gonna kill me first
because he wants to get money from you.
He knows I won't give him a cent.
Marco and Arnaud, Manu has a message for you.
See you soon.
That means everything.
That means you know who, when, and where.
Textual analysis.
You know when. You know where.
That's a video
with some threats.
You saw it. If you saw it, the justice system has seen it.
Can you tell me what's happening in that video?
If I had made a video,
I would've been picked up, indicted, and thrown in jail.
Yeah. But what can we do? They let things happen.
I'm not a guy who goes to the police.
But the problem isn't the issue.
No one can defend you.
You're alone in your world. All alone.
You're going to have to handle it like a grown-up.
And that's the worst.
You're scared for your wife, your kids, for everyone close to you.
So you become another man.
Back then, Arnaud Mimran met an Italian TV star from Paraguay
who he moved in with really quickly.
Overnight, he left Claude Dray's daughter, Anna,
who was madly in love with him.
They met at a young age. He was the love of her life.
And overnight, he goes and moves in with this girl.
And then, shockingly,
he has a sort of squabble with his former in-laws,
particularly Claude Dray.
He specifically rents a villa in Saint-Tropez across from the Drays
and vacations there with his partner.
He's really sort of deliberately provoking them.
There's a growing hate
between Arnaud Mimran and the Dray family.
That is until Claude Dray comes up with a kind of radical solution.
He contacted the investigators handling the CO2 case
and basically rats out his ex-son-in-law.
OFFICIAL REPORT PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
He leads a lavish lifestyle.
He buys many vehicles: a Rolls Royce, a Lamborghini…
He bought a boat. He only flies private.
In France, he has nothing to his name.
As far as I know, he and Arnaud may be linked to the murder of Samy Souied
over a debt of 700,000 euros.
Of course I knew Arnaud's father-in-law.
For me, an incredible man.
I knew him, but not as a friend.
He was a gentleman who respected me.
I heard he badmouthed me.
But I don't know why.
But in my opinion, he badmouthed me because I was Arnaud's friend.
Claude Dray was humiliated.
His daughter had been unceremoniously dumped
by his rather uncouth son-in-law, etc.
So Claude Dray is gonna do everything he can
to try and get revenge on Arnaud Mimran.
The shutters of his villa in Neuilly
haven't been opened since the beginning of the week.
Tuesday morning, Claude Dray, age 76, was found dead in his home by his butler.
He was killed by three bullets to the neck.
At the scene, however,
investigators found no signs of a struggle or breaking and entering.
Let's talk about it. It's like the mystery of the pink room.
No one goes in and no one comes out.
-Yellow room. -Yellow, pink, or green, I don't know.
But it was weird.
Like everyone, we found out he died in his house in Neuilly
with, I think, a bullet in his head, a bullet in his neck.
Mr. Dray wasn't a thug.
He was a businessman who had a lot of money.
He was someone… It's the same.
That started to get in people's heads.
Samy, Mr. Dray…
It seems when you connect all these murders,
obviously there's a team of killers working in Paris
and we're not able to put names to them.
The media reported
that Mr. Dray asked for help from the state,
such as customs,
to denounce his son-in-law.
The press reported this,
and it was something that convinced the family.
That doesn't mean we can prove
Mr. Dray's son-in-law is behind his murder.
I leave his daughter. He gets killed three years later. How's that my fault?
Three years later. I didn't see Claude for three years.
He's still my kids' grandfather.
I was still close to him for 15 years.
Shot dead, that's awful.
When you saw your name in the papers among murderers, what did you think?
I was annoyed with the police.
If I kill someone and you accuse me,
I can't kill a second person close to me. Nor a third.
I think that would be blatantly obvious.
I have so much… True, even I ask myself. I think, "This is unbelievable."
At the funeral, he was one of his father-in-law's pallbearers.
I admit I looked at this picture for a long time.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe something so atrocious.
I don't see at what point the guy would be able to break
the first commandment, in fact.
No, I don't mind showing my wounds.
No problem.
So the day of my attempted murder,
I took a bullet four millimeters from my brain.
A bullet entered through my nasal cavity here
and came out down here.
I took a bullet
in the arm, and it tore up my whole arm.
A bullet in the hand,
where the scar is.
I took
a bullet here, two, three bullets in the stomach,
one bullet in the lung.
So that's three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
And one in the buttocks.
So nine bullets went through my body and were inside and…
So?
In December 2016, Dominique Ghez took nine bullets.
It's a miracle the guy survived.
Undoubtedly, he's the guy in the case who knows Mimran and Mouly best.
He's really close to them.
Dominique Ghez has some criminal friends.
It's said he was close to certain people in the eastern suburbs of Paris, etc.
That's wrong.
That's more than wrong.
I'm a loudmouth.
I never got into organized crime or people involved in that.
But it's true I'm kind of ready to fight,
kind of loud, and…
I'm a worker,
someone who gets up in the morning to work to put food on the table for my family.
Simply put. Then I got a false reputation.
He wasn't one of the players in CO2,
meaning he didn't touch CO2.
He was in prison most of the time it was going on anyway.
But on the other hand, what's shocking is you see him appear,
kind of like a ghost.
For each murder in this story,
the major twists in the file,
Dominique Ghez is there.
The night Samy Souied was killed, he was there.
The day Arnaud Mimran was arrested at home,
the investigators find Ghez in the kitchen.
He's like a watermark.
You see him appear kind of everywhere without being guilty of anything.
In any case, we can ask, as the police do,
"Doesn't Ghez know too much?"
LÉA FIORENTINO DOMINIQUE GHEZ'S LAWYER
In all murder cases, whether it's these or others,
we find out things, and we start from something.
We start from a bullet casing or a witness
or recognizing something or a camera or something.
With regards to the attempted murder that Mr. Ghez was a victim of,
we start from nothing. There is nothing.
Not one casing was found.
No one was able to identify the shooters, even though it's in the middle of the 16th
and the Le Flandrin restaurant is nearby. The station isn't far.
Anyway, in the 16th district, people aren't used to shootings.
And we start from nothing.
Dominique, in your personal investigation, you have found those who shot you.
I'd prefer not to answer that question.
Once their fortune was made,
you might expect these guys to go on the run, disappear,
go spend their money discreetly on a beach in Costa Rica.
No way!
This is where the problems begin.
That's what made it all blow up.
Guys are dropping like flies.
Their friend was killed at Porte Maillot.
Amar was shot at a bar in Saint-Mandé. Everyone in Paris is getting agitated.
Guys start getting out their knives to try to find and skin them.
And they're wearing fur coats in Paris, flashing their cash,
getting into showbiz, organizing unbelievable bar mitzvahs.
That's the whole problem for these guys, the players in this case.
They didn't know how to keep their heads down and keep a low profile.
NOVEMBER 2012
So there it is. The dad throws a little party for his son.
Quiet.
-A tiny little party. -A small party.
At a bar mitzvah,
you eat, drink, party, and forget everything the next day.
But what you don't forget are the stars.
Gad Elmaleh was there. Nikos was there.
Marco was inspired…
M. Pokora was there.
Sexion d'Assaut was there. Maître Gims was there.
Cyril Hanouna!
There was…
At Arnaud's bar mitzvah and at mine, there were cops everywhere. Yeah.
You recognized them, and you leave them alone.
You don't care. They eat and drink. They're happy. They're invited.
Ladies and gentlemen,
there must be some people here who weren't invited.
We'll recognize them. Don't worry.
There are spies here.
Ladies and gentlemen, don't worry.
We have private detectives who are watching everything.
So there were parties that the police checked out
and surveilled certain people.
But once again, without ever…
until the facts were revealed and the investigation was underway,
without ever making the very comprehensive link
with what was going on behind the scenes
and why people from the dark underworld of organized crime
would hang around flamboyant wheeler-dealers.
I didn't really like Pharrell Williams.
There's no atmosphere.
I like Akon.
Puff Daddy is another world.
It's everything you love.
Chicks, parties, money. Everything you love!
You want to take off with him.
Arnaud's problem was that he only invited rich people.
I invited rich and poor people. Why?
Because they have to mix.
You need trash and cash.
"Yes, well then."
Then the poor guy comes and takes your cake at your table.
It's no fun without all that.
We had to deal with people
who were really used to financial delinquency,
who continuously broke the law
and, at a certain point, had to stop.
We have to stop them. Otherwise, they continue.
APRIL 23, 2013
PARIS - CHAMPS-ELYSÉES THIS AFTERNOON
I was at the Aviation Club where I play poker.
I won 130,000 euros at poker.
I go home like normal. I go to sleep.
All of a sudden, I wake up alert.
"Dad, it's the police."
I say, "What? The police? What's going on?"
They say, "Mouly, we're seizing everything."
"You know why we're arresting you."
They took me into the new house I'd just bought,
which they sold not that long ago.
"Mouly, you're showing off."
I saw everything go.
I saw all my things go, my jackets, pants, shoes.
They took everything. I was finished. The film stopped.
The picture was cut.
When they put the collection notice on the door…
The truth is then you feel naked.
They take your heart and soul, your clothes, everything.
The trial for one of the most unbelievable scams in decades has begun.
Twelve people are being tried in Paris
for having diverted more than a billion euros
thanks to a sleight of hand with the carbon tax.
DAVID-OLIVIER KAMINSKI MARCO MOULY'S LAWYER
I remember that he called us on a Sunday
to prepare and work on his case.
In a very studious and meticulous way, I presented the facts
that were against him.
After ten minutes, he said, "That's all right."
And then all of a sudden
a journalist would arrive.
I see a camera come. Marco wanted to do an interview.
Marco Mouly, according to authorities, is a key player
in the planning, set-up, financing, and laundering.
He's downplaying his role.
I owed a small debt to a friend.
He said, "Open these two accounts and we're even." I said okay.
I didn't go looking for carbon.
Carbon came to me.
I even thought it was oxygen for firefighters.
There's a quote from Saint-Just that came to mind,
which is, "Public domain was established to fix the misfortunes of society."
So when you take money from public funds, you're taking money from our solidarity.
You can do the math pretty quickly on how much the VAT scam cost.
You can count this in intensive care beds, in hours of work for doctors.
It's not just abstract money.
It's money we could use for concrete things.
Mr. Amar tells me to my face,
"Mouly, you're gonna get eight years."
I laugh. I say, "Wait. I haven't even been tried."
He says, "I'm gonna ask for ten so you get eight."
At the end of the trial, the judge says,
"We'll deliver the verdict on July 7."
And I tell the judge,
"Be nice, Your Honor. Deliver the verdict in September. I'm going on vacation."
When he sets it for July 7 at 9:00 in the morning,
that means I'm going to jail.
So the verdict was in July.
So between the trial and the verdict,
I'm with Arnaud and everyone.
We're talking, he says, "We're going to trial."
"Don't worry. We won't go to jail."
But I don't want to tell Arnaud I'm really worried.
I don't want to tell Arnaud because Arnaud hasn't been to jail.
Arnaud's going to a new world.
He thinks he's gonna go to jail and get out in two, three months. No.
I know I'm not gonna get out.
He doesn't know what it's like.
So he thinks he's gonna land on his feet.
The customs police came through here.
You see?
It's empty.
Apparently you're not scared to go to jail.
Of course I'm scared. He's crazy.
Who wouldn't be scared?
I have kids and all.
Of course I'm scared. But what do you want me to do?
He's crazy. He thinks going to jail has no effect on me.
JULY 7, 2016
Arnaud Mimran was summoned for deliberations.
The prosecutor requested a ten-year sentence for him.
Even though Arnaud Mimran knew the prosecutor had asked
for him to be locked up for ten years and arrested at the bar,
he was the only one to go to court
to hear his sentence with a bag containing his belongings,
knowing there was a good chance he'd end up behind bars
for a significant amount of time.
Why did he do it?
Because when you're a player and you play and lose, you pay your debts.
You show your children
by going to get the sentence
that when you do something stupid, you take responsibility.
The third reason is because Arnaud Mimran is someone who,
by nature,
doesn't run.
July 7th comes.
I was with Arnaud the day before.
I go to the trial.
I go to the trial to get my sentence.
My phone rang because I got there late.
And I think it's God…
My phone rang. I didn't answer it.
And a text message comes in.
"Marco, you got eight years with a warrant for your immediate arrest."
I have a problem.
I got eight years. What else could happen?
Go on, juggle!
Life's made up of juggling.
It's just juggling. Life is just like that.
You have to juggle money, juggle the police, juggle thugs,
juggle everything.
I love to watch juggling. Why?
'Cause she does her job like I do mine.
The day after the verdict, I got a text on WhatsApp.
Who do I see? Marco Mouly
in the streets of Rome in the back of a carriage.
In the second photo,
he's pretending to open the door of a police car, smirking.
There was a message, one line.
"The sentence is too harsh."
There was a line for me too.
"I'm not on the run."
"I'm taking a step back. I'm not sure I've stepped back enough."
How could he leave?
He left because he really doubted he was gonna…
Because he had a prison sentence and an arrest warrant waiting for him.
If I were in their shoes,
I'm not gonna go to court to get arrested at the hearing.
I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna set sail.
Is that good?
Well done, man.
That's balance.
You're gonna lend me your body.
Yeah.
Marco could've saved himself. He was in Israel.
He came back. He thought about it.
He said to himself, "I didn't do all this for it to end like this."
And the day he got caught, he called me
because he was arrested in Switzerland
and the Swiss police were nice.
And I remember he called me on my cell.
He said, "How are you, Titi?" I said, "Fine."
He said, "It's over. They got me."
He said, "That's it. I'm gonna do my time. I wanted to turn myself in."
"They caught me, but it's okay. That's the price you pay."
HELLO, COMRADE
IT'S ME, MARCO WE'VE BEEN CAUGHT, MY BROTHER
I'm gonna tell you a story about you.
-About me? -Yeah, but you were in jail.
During my trial,
there was a lawyer smoking a cigarette
with one of the prosecutors who sentenced you.
She said, "Mr. Prosecutor,
about Marco Mouly,
"the petition made in the Court of Appeals was a lot less harsh than yours."
He says, "That's normal
because the public prosecutor in the Court of Appeals is a Gentile."
"They should've gotten a Jew like me because all the Jews I deal with,
I give them a treha!"
-In reality. -They did their job well.
We can't be mad at the prosecutors.
They examined the evidence, and they massacred us.
Only against us.
Marco, they're prosecutors. That's their job.
I have a good relationship with Amar.
We say hello. We respect each other.
-Amar? -Yeah.
Amar?!
Don't forget he brought up matters
going back 27 years!
You can sentence me for things I've done,
but not 27 years later!
I'm a fifth wheel in all these matters.
Who's the mastermind?
You're the mastermind who brought the case!
You said it loud and clear!
I'm a fifth wheel! I go where it smells good.
You took advantage of it.
-Of what? -Stop it, Marco.
-What? -Didn't you take advantage of the system?
Let's not talk about that. Well?
You're biting the hand that feeds you.
You profited, re-profited, abused, re-abused.
But they took it all back.
Maybe, but there was a time when even the police said, "Sorry it ended."
"Following you was the best time of our lives."
But that ends. Those are memories.
But that's what you wanted.
I want the money!
Why spend five years in jail if there's no more money?
Normally, you do business, you go to jail, you stop, you end up with the money,
and then life is beautiful.
We did nothing but bullshit. What are you talking about?
We just did some bullshit.
Carbon is not a good business aside from having lived it up
and having showed off
and having lots of problems with thugs
and having lots of problems everywhere.
-With your family-- -With your family, wife, kids, and all.
Here's the scoop. I will never go to jail again, with the grace of God.
I'll do everything cleanly. The truth is they broke me.
Now let's talk business.
Now we're going to the prison, La Santé.
That's it. During the day, you dream. At night, you suffer.
The dream goes away.
You know, they say there's a god and a devil.
If you believe in God, believe in the Devil.
Now we're going to the Devil's.
It all stops.
You go to jail, your whole life stops. Really everything.
The next morning, you don't know if you'll be able to go out on day parole.
Anything can happen.
What do they say about Marco Mouly in jail?
He's a billionaire.
That he's got money and we gotta make some.
Some guys are nice,
and others are mean and come at you maliciously.
You ignore the nice ones because they're scoundrels.
And the mean ones, you punch because you gotta make an impression.
But sometimes you're not strong enough.
LA SANTÉ PRISON PARIS
I'm here. Going to my special hotel at 42 rue de la Santé.
Thanks.
At 3:00 pm, he decides…
Radio Fresnes, hello.
So today, we're gonna start with an expression that we hear often,
"Get lost." Listen, that's all you hear here.
We only wanted one thing, to get lost.
I hope justice will shed light on all this and the truth will come out…
and one day, Marco Mouly will reveal everything he knows
and he'll spill the beans
and he'll let out everything he has inside him.
Whether he participated directly or indirectly,
I think his conscience must not be clear…
and he has blood on his hands.
Marco's one of your best friends. You said so earlier.
My best friend.
Marco Mouly was my best friend.
Are you saying something?
Even for him. Did he say it or did you?
He did.
So you're telling me something that really hurts.
You know what? One day in Israel, I did a lie detector test.
The police were there.
People came in with a lie detector to see if I knew something about Samy.
I took the lie detector test.
I left and I got up like a king.
Why? Because the truth had been told when they confirmed it was true.
And another thing, instead of responding to that,
because that's shit
since it's my word against his, he said, she said…
You say he's my best friend.
Bring in a lie detector.
And you'll see it's the truth.
No, stop breaking my balls,
'cause you were talking about awful things.
I'm gonna stop here, and I'm gonna take your cameras
until you actually have the lie detector.
I'm from the official security world,
let's say, the Spanish anti-terrorist police.
JOSÉ ANTIONIO LANDA POLYGRAPH EXPERT
I spent seven years at the American embassy in Madrid.
And then I went to Tel Aviv, Israel
to the Polygraph Institute of Israel.
Hello.
How are you?
I invite you to take a seat.
You always have cold hands?
That's normal. I'm kind of shaking. I'm not used to this.
Do you intend to tell the truth during this test?
If I'm here, it's to tell the truth.
No, that's not it. Yes or no.
Yes.
Have you ever received a death threat?
Yes.
Are you scared for your life?
I can't answer that question.
Did Samy Souied tell you he feared for his life?
No.
Are you in any way responsible for the murder of Samy Souied?
No.
Are you in any way responsible for the attempted murder of Dominique Ghez?
No.
Do you still consider Arnaud Mimran a friend?
That's off topic.
Will you ever, perhaps, commit fraud again?
No.
Yeah, prison is scary. That's for sure.
But after watching shows like Prison Break,
no, it wouldn't scare me.
I would've said yes right away.
Getting out and having what they have and doing what they could do.
I don't think they lost everything. I can't believe that.
What did we get back?
From the 1,6 billion?
Come on.
Maybe 200 million.
That's huge.
Yeah, but the difference…
the difference is what those who pocketed the money get to keep.
He's taken care of his family. He'll never be…
You're not nice, Serge.
I swear on my mother's life, you're the biggest asshole.
Do you want me to say you're a bum?
Yeah, I am a bum!
-I don't have a cent. -Okay, you're a bum.
You have nothing?
I think it'll be really difficult
to get the money back.
I wonder if we're the only ones looking for it.
I wouldn't like to be the one who has it.
I wouldn't sleep well.
Not just for moral reasons.
I'm going to tell you the results.
-Not in front of the camera. -Yes.
He'll tell us the real stuff first. Don't you see he's talking bullshit?
Easy, because I'm scared.
Okay, shall we start?
So…
May I call you Marco?
Of course.
I'm happy to be here
to testify that you've told the truth
to all the questions that are really important to us.
I told the truth?
Polygraph tests are not accepted as proof by French jurisdictions.
According to José Antonio Landa, only certain highly trained individuals
manage to fool the machine.
The investigation into the attempted assassination of Dominique Ghez continues.
In July 2016, the Polish broker Jaroslaw Klapucki was sentenced
to seven years in prison in the initial trial of the CO2 case.
He was released by the Court of Appeal a year later.
No further charges have been brought against him.
Grégory Zaoui was sentenced to eight years in prison in the CO2 case.
Upon his release, he was approached by the Ministry of Finance
to share his expertise in financial fraud cases.
He did not follow up and enrolled in the Cours Florent.
Arnaud Mimran has been incarcerated since July 2016.
On April 15, 2021,
he was indicted for "accessory to murder" in the Claude Dray case
and for "murder in an organized gang" in the Samy Souied case.
Pending a court decision,
he is presumed innocent.
On June 25, 2021, he was also sentenced to 13 years
by the Paris circuit court for his involvement
in the kidnapping and extortion of a Swiss financier.
Arnaud Mimran appealed. A new trial will take place.
In June 2021, Marco Mouly was taken into police custody
in the investigation of the murder of Samy Souied.
He was released without charge.
The investigation is ongoing.
For the CO2 case, he was sentenced to repay,
along with Arnaud Mimran and their accomplices,
238 million euros to the state.
He's unsure if he wants to write songs
or be a stock market adviser.
BlueNext, the carbon exchange,
never recovered from this massive tax scam.
It shut down in December 2012.
In total, the losses are estimated at more than 1,6 billion euros for France
and at least 6 billion for European Union countries.
The presence of persons accompanying anyone in the film at any point
does not indicate they had knowledge of or participated in
any related illegal activities.