Lords of Scam

Following his release under semi-liberty from Hauts-de-Seine jail, Mardoché "Marco" Mouly adjusts to an electronic monitoring tag, remarking, "Now I have an electronic tag. I go out at 8:00 a.m. I come back at 8:00 p.m." Reflecting on his youth in Belleville, Mouly recalls starting out in his father’s butcher shop before drifting into card games and phone-based advertising schemes, latestnetflix.com argues, where he was eventually convicted of false advertising.

In 1997, Mouly buys a restaurant from Grégory Zaoui to learn his business methods. Zaoui introduces him to intra-community VAT fraud involving mobile phone sales across European borders. Wholesalers in the United Kingdom sell handsets to French front companies without VAT, which are then resold with tax included before the companies disappear with the funds. Mouly and Zaoui are eventually caught, and public prosecutor Patrice Amar targets Mouly as a repeated financial offender, leading to a three-year prison sentence.

While in custody in 2004, Zaoui learns about the upcoming emissions trading market. Following the Kyoto Protocol, Europe establishes exchanges such as BlueNext in Paris to trade carbon quotas. Zaoui discovers that quota transactions carry standard VAT and runs a test trade with 30,000 euros, finding that tax refunds credit almost instantly. As Zaoui shares the method, Mouly hears of the enormous profits and resolves to join the emerging market.

Mouly travels to Poland to secure market access by confronting French-licensed broker Jaroslav Klapucki at the Ritz in Warsaw. Mouly pressures Klapucki by claiming, "Everyone knows what you do with VAT," and secures an exclusive brokerage arrangement. In Israel, veteran fraudster Samy Souied joins the operation to direct trade logistics and orders, though he remains wary of Mouly's boisterous nature.

To provide necessary capital, Mouly introduces Arnaud Mimran, a wealthy Parisian stockbroker connected through marriage to billionaire Claude Dray. Mouly and Mimran first bond at a casino in Deauville after Mouly smashes his shoe onto a losing roulette number. Mimran advances eight million euros to fund the operation, completing a core partnership built across three distinct backgrounds.

The syndicate establishes European front companies alongside offshore accounts in Cyprus, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Quotas purchased VAT-free outside France are transferred to French domestic shell companies, resold on BlueNext with a 20 percent VAT surcharge, and the collected tax is diverted rather than repaid to the French treasury. Addressing the rapid escalation of the fraud, prosecutors observed how street hustlers merged with high finance to exploit cross-border tax exemptions.

The group collects tens of millions of euros each week, spending heavily in Las Vegas, hiring private jets, and buying fleets of sports cars. Mouly throws lavish celebrations, explaining his spending habits bluntly: "Honestly, I don't know how to read or write. But I earned that kind of money. How do you expect me to understand the power of money? Give me some, I take it, I spend it." By the time French authorities cancel the VAT requirement on carbon quotas in June 2009, investigators estimate the trio has siphoned roughly 283 million euros.

Tensions rise as profits are divided unevenly, leaving Mimran with a smaller share than Souied. On September 14, 2010, Souied is gunned down by two assassins on a scooter at Porte Maillot in Paris while carrying 300,000 euros and a skull-shaped ring. Suspicion centers on Mimran over an unpaid 60-million-euro loan, though no immediate charges are filed.

Violence widens among associated figures. After leaving his wife, Mimran feuds with his former father-in-law Claude Dray, who reports Mimran's financial misconduct to customs investigators. Dray is subsequently found dead in his Neuilly home from three gunshots to the neck, with no signs of forced entry. Years later in December 2016, close associate Dominique Ghez survives being shot nine times outside a restaurant in Paris's 16th arrondissement.

Customs officers arrest Mouly at his home on April 23, 2013, seizing his property. In 2016, twelve defendants stand trial in Paris for carbon tax fraud. Prior to sentencing, prosecutor Amar informs Mouly directly: "Mouly, you'll get eight years." On July 7, 2016, Mimran appears in court with an overnight bag and receives a ten-year prison sentence. Mouly, warned by a text stating, "Marco, you got eight years with an immediate arrest warrant," flees to Rome and later Switzerland, where Swiss police arrest him.

Back in Paris under partial confinement at La Santé prison, Mouly confronts skepticism from associates and undergoes a polygraph examination conducted by expert José Antonio Landa. Asked if he was responsible for the killing of Souied or the shooting of Ghez, Mouly answers "No," and Landa concludes that Mouly answered the key questions truthfully.

Closing texts reveal that Polish broker Klapucki was cleared on appeal, while Zaoui served an eight-year sentence. Mimran remains incarcerated, facing additional indictments for complicity in the murders of Dray and Souied, alongside a separate 13-year sentence for kidnapping. Mouly remains under investigation without charges for Souied's death while facing an order to repay 238 million euros to the French state for the carbon scam, which ultimately cost France an estimated 1.6 billion euros.