Eleven men have been charged with participating in a “vast international money laundering network” that involved embezzling unjustified bonuses for reduced work during the Covid pandemic, French justice officials said, quoted by AFP.

The network’s alleged leader, a 41-year-old man of Turkish origin “not known to the law”, was arrested at his home in northwestern France on June 9 and placed in a remand cell.

French construction companies sent sums, sometimes “hundreds of thousands of euros, to phantom companies, also French, without any apparent connection and with the help of false invoices,” Rennes prosecutor general Philippe Astruc explained in a statement.

The sums were then diverted by “shell companies” to bank accounts in Turkey or China, to companies such as car dealerships or jewelry stores, to recover the cash, the judge said.

The total amount of this money laundering operation is estimated at 12 million euros. More than two million euros have already been confiscated “from the assets of those involved”.

In addition to the alleged leader, on October 5, during a large-scale police operation in various regions of the northern half of France, ten directors of French construction companies were arrested, in particular for “undercover work and money laundering in an organized manner.”

Ten men, some of whom were known to the courts, including for their secret work, were placed under judicial supervision.