The investigation into a vast real estate scandal in Toulouse is progressing. The first investigations had started in 2020 with the cabinet l’Immeuble, a well-known real estate agency in Toulouse, after the report of a wealthy client complaining of never having received the interest promised after his investments in real estate projects. The work of the financial section of the judicial police has thus just led to the seizure of 900,000 euros from the accounts of the real estate agency in question.
It seems increasingly clear that one of the leaders of the Building, Jean-Claude Vergnes, would have set up a pyramid-type system. Wealthy individuals were approached and lured by “guaranteed” returns of 7 to 10%. To access it, these investors lent to the SARL cabinet l’Immeuble or to the SCIs that the agency managed sums that could amount to several hundred thousand euros. “These loans were the subject of so-called “cash” agreements, outside any legal framework and in violation of the banking monopoly”said the prosecution in a press release.
20 million euros
Proof of the importance of this scam, the total of the amounts placed would amount to 20 million euros, according to the prosecution. The alleged Ponzi pyramid is a classic scam mechanism comparable to that used by the American financier Bernard Madoff, where the interest paid to the first lenders simply comes from the funds brought in by new entrants into the system. Dozens of investors have been victims of this arrangement. In addition to the manager of the Building, three other people were interviewed during police custody, including a promoter who had denounced the actions of Jean-Claude Vergnes but found himself suspected of complicity. According to the daily La Dépêche, the former president of the departmental council of Haute-Garonne, Georges Méric, would also be involved in this file. What he defends himself against.
And what happens to the sums seized? “These sums will be donated to AGRASC, a public institution in charge of managing the seized assets. They may, in whole or in part, be allocated to the compensation of victims.according to the public prosecutor of Toulouse, quoted by France 3.