A complex bank fraud case has come up in front of the Monaco criminal court involving the extradition of a Finnish national by the German authorities, as part of an international arrest warrant issued by the Monegasque justice system.
As he was absent at the hearing at the time, the criminal court had condemned by default this auxiliary nurse specialising in assistance for the disabled, handing out a sentence of one year in prison.
The case centred on a fraudulent transfer order addressed to Crédit du Nord of Monaco in order to credit a bank account in Warsaw.
In May 2014, a rich English woman wanted to close her offshore account at the bank. A statement showed a debit of €27,000, credited to another account of a Polish bank held on behalf of the accused. The original transfer request was for €35,000, but because of insufficient provisions, the local bank transferred the only available balance. The British client filed a complaint and the public security investigators were able to go back to the inactive account in Poland.
At its latest hearing, the court heard that the defendant disputed opening the account in Warsaw and sending the email to Credit du Nord. He said that this was a clear case of his identity having been stolen after he lost his passport.
Prosecutor Cyrielle Colle agreed that there was a lack of evidence and called for the gentleman in question to be acquitted.
Defending counsel was pleased with the prosecutor’s approach, and pointed out that his client had been held in jail for six weeks because of identity fraud.