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Marseille victim of €700,000 Chinese scam

French Ligue 1 giants Marseille were the victims of a €700,000 ($793,000) international bank transfer scam to China last year, sources close to the case told AFP on Friday.

A preliminary enquiry has been opened by a court in the southern city of Marseille, with police fraud officers working in conjunction with the Central Office for Fighting Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF).

"Like hundreds of other French companies, Olympique Marseille were the victims of a scam," the club said in a statement, adding they had "immediately filed a complaint" and "taken all the necessary steps".

"Part of the money has been recovered," the statement added.

It is estimated that 360 French businesses have been hit by fake transfer orders, representing €300 million ($340m), in the past two years.

A delegation from the French Justice Ministry visiting Beijing last November estimated that there was "an acceleration of such cases in late 2013, early 2014".

Other recent high-profile victims of the scam were French international tyre-maker Michelin, to the tune of €1.6m ($1.8m), and global audit firm KPMG, who lost €7.6 ($8.6m).

The scam is the latest misfortune to hit Marseille who were in the headlines recently as part of a probe into suspect player transfers.

Jose Anigo, the club's former sporting director, was released without charge last week after he was among 12 people arrested as part of an enquiry involving players agents as well as suspected crime figures.

The suspect transfers being investigated date back to 2010 and include that of French international striker Andre-Pierre Gignac.

The club management has since changed. But president Vincent Labrune as well as several former leaders were among people held for questioning in November.

CRIME

France blocks fake Ukraine war recruitment website

French authorities have uncovered a website for a fake recruitment drive purportedly seeking French volunteers to fight for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

France blocks fake Ukraine war recruitment website

The site has now been taken down by French services, a government source, who asked not to be named, told AFP without elaborating.

The site had said that 200,000 French people were invited to “enlist in Ukraine”, with immigrants given priority.

A link to the site – that resembled the French army’s genuine recruitment portal – had been posted on X, formerly Twitter, the French defence ministry said.

“The site is a fake government site,” the ministry said, also on X, “and has been reposted by malevolent accounts as part of a disinformation campaign”.

The ministry did not say who they thought might be responsible. But a source close to the government told AFP initial evidence pointed to communications operations linked to Russian mercenary group Wagner.

“The accounts used and the technical data behind them, these are the people we know”, the source said.

“These people are still there and remain very focused on Ukraine. The subject of the French army is something that annoys them a lot.”

Separately, a government official speaking on condition of anonymity said the site bore “the hallmarks of a Russian or pro-Russian effort as part of a disinformation campaign claiming that the French army is preparing to send troops to Ukraine”.

French President Emmanuel Macron angered the Russian leadership last month by hardening his tone on the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In recent weeks he has refused to rule out sending ground troops and insisted that Europe has to do all that is necessary for a Russian defeat.

France has already accused Russia of waging a disinformation campaign against it.

The official told AFP that similar recent examples of disinformation posts included pictures of French army convoys wrongly presented as moving towards the Ukrainian border.

The fake website invited potential recruits to contact “unit commander Paul” for information about joining.

The defence ministry and government cyber units are investigating, ministry staff told AFP.

The French government has recently stepped up efforts to denounce and fight what it says are Russian disinformation and destabilisation campaigns aimed at undermining French public support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“Russia is asserting itself as the most aggressive player in the information field,” Marc-Antoine Brillant, the head of Viginum, an agency mandated to detect digital disinformation campaigns, said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.

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