In a strongly worded retort, Israel hit back Monday, February 26, at accusations that it had not done enough to help French authorities catch some of the suspects in Paris' biggest fraud trial in recent years.
On the opening day of the trial last week, prosecutors suggested that Israel had failed to live up to its international obligations by not chasing down 13 from among the 124 defendants on trial for their alleged role in a $77 million (€84 million) fraud.
"It has been a year since France promised to send us the information we needed to carry this case further, but it still has not done so," said a statement released by the Israeli embassy in Paris. "It's upsetting, but the French have no-one to blame but themselves," it concluded.
The prosecution alleges that the accused, most of whom worked in the capital's Sentier rag-trade district, set up a series of networks aimed at defrauding banks and insurance companies, which raised the alarm in 1997.
Thirteen of the defendants are being tried in absentia and are believed to be in Israel. Prosecutors have criticized Israel, alleging that it had refused to track down and extradite the men.
Describing the alleged fraud an investigator said: "This is a scheme as old as the trade business. It consists of telling a bank that you have signed a contract and obtaining a loan. Then you use the money to reimburse another bank and so on," he said, describing how the pyramid scheme worked. "In the end the banks have given loans that they will never recover."
Prosecutors allege that several companies headed for bankruptcy also would order huge amounts of merchandise they never intended to pay for. Investigators claim also to have uncovered money-laundering networks with Austria, Belgium and Israel.
The trial, which is set to end May 11, is taking place in a courtroom that was especially built for the occasion in the Paris Courthouse in order to accommodate the defendants, their attorneys and counsel for the 34 civil plaintiffs in the case. — (AFP, Paris)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
