Fake sickness, phoney qualifications, fictitious businessmen: the France of scam | M6 | Zone Interdite

Every year, fraud against the public purse costs the French taxpayer between 28 and 40 billion Euros. A waste that is all the more shocking during a time when everybody has to tighten his belt. Social Security swindles, embezzlement of funds intended for professional training, fake status as self-employed. How do you fight these abusive practices? Who are the dishonest bosses who get rich by profiting from a poorly regulated system? We carried out an investigation over several weeks. Defective equipment, produce past its sell-by-date, phantom transportation, fictitious ambulance crew. Some ambulance companies will stop at nothing to embezzle money from Social Security, at the risk of their customers’ health. A fraud estimated at 10 million Euros every year. We infiltrated one such company. Fake students, over-billed¾or phoney¾courses, invented organisations: in the disorganised mess of professional training¾with a turnover of 26 billion Euros a year¾some crooked bosses are prepared to carry out any scam to make themselves rich. A sector where the rules are opaque, where big money flows, with little risk of a sudden inspection because there are only 150 inspectors to supervise 50,000 centres of education! To avoid paying their employees’ social charges, some unscrupulous employers have found a new way to cheat the revenue: force their employees to become self-employed. A scheme that is profitable for the bosses, but a disaster for the former employees because by taking up this status, they become simple providers of services to the business and lose all their social benefits.