Six people have been arrested on suspicion of swindling the French state out of 12 million euros ($14.3 million) in COVID-19 unemployment benefits by using 3,600 shell companies to claim the payments, the Europol police body said on Wednesday.
Europol added that the main suspect – a 30-year-old Franco-Israeli citizen – and his wife were arrested in Replonges close to the Swiss border on June 16 while trying to flee to Geneva where they were planning to take a flight to Tel Aviv.
($1 = 0.8379 euros)
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely)
