Major French Real Estate Fraud Trial Begins, Involving Morocco and 762 Victims

During this trial, which will last more than three months, the 15 defendants, including a company, a lawyer, three notaries, and several salespeople and employees in charge of relations with banks, will appear for acts of organized fraud, forgery and use of forgeries, and organized money laundering, reports France 3, specifying that the 762 victims of this vast real estate fraud will be represented by 110 lawyers.

In total, more than 7.5 million euros, as well as real estate and luxury goods, have been seized in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Morocco as part of this case. The 15 accused face sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of one million euros each. The Apollonia company, based in Aix-en-Provence and specialized in real estate tax optimization advice, risks up to five million euros in fines.

Created in the mid-2000s by Jean Badache, his wife (real estate agent) and his son, the Apollonia company was generating a turnover of 36 million euros with its "turnkey product" offered to customers. But the scandal broke out in April 2008, when 43 people filed a complaint with the Marseille prosecutor’s office, denouncing a vast real estate fraud and making accusations of forgery, misleading advertising and abusive commercial practices.

The judicial investigation opened two months later revealed the modus operandi of this network. Salespeople, with the help of a lawyer and notaries, managed to convince individuals to subscribe to self-financed real estate investment projects. With forged documents, they obtained mortgage loans from banks. But in reality, the "self-financing promised was only a mirage," summarizes the judge’s order.

Investors found themselves faced with huge debts due to the "phenomenon of stacking of loans". The Apollonia company will have sold more than 5,000 real estate properties for nearly one billion euros, between 2002 and 2010. The apartments sold off-plan were overvalued by "70% to 100%," according to the victims who have joined the civil parties in this trial which continues until June 6, 2025.