Have you ever heard of a man people love despite his scams of millions and imprisonment? Besides that, the man stars in media, in a documentary, and even publishes a book. The man of many shades is Marco Mouly, the mastermind behind the biggest scam in France.
Marco Mouly is a fifty-six-year-old Tunisian man who faced eight years imprisonment for his carbon VAT fraud. The scam known as the “scam of the century” has been documented on the online streaming platform Netflix. Mouly is accused of carrying out the biggest tax fraud in France. The VAT fraud was buying carbon quotas without paying tax for fictitious foreign companies from polluting companies. The amount of money stolen in the scam amounted to 283 million euros. The Marco Mouly Netflix documentary is titled “Les Rois de l’Arnaque” or “the king of the scam.”
Marco Mouly Wikipédia
The Netflix documentary is based on the ‘king of the swindle’ whose official name was Mardoche Mouly. He was born in Tunisia but brought up in Belleville, Paris. Marco Mouly had exceptional expertise in shenanigans, which he didn’t learn in any school. He was almost illiterate but, of course, knew counting money.
He arrived in Paris with his family, which had a Jewish origin, in the 1960s. The financial condition of his family was pitiful, with his mother feeding eight children.
At 12, he left school, as he didn’t stay in school for more than a day, and promised his mother to change her fortune. This was the start of him becoming hustler Mouly Marco.
When Mouly was 20 and working in an advertising company, he had an idea to make huge money illegally. He used to sell fake ad inserts to clients for a reasonable amount. When caught, he was imprisoned for thirteen months.
Marco Mouly VAT Fraud
As Marco Mouly grew up, his ambitions became higher and riskier. Now he eyed becoming a millionaire quickly. He used to buy duty-free electronic equipment from foreign countries included in the EU and resell them, imposing VAT in France. He didn’t return the 20% VAT he was supposed to return to the state and kept depositing them in his accounts abroad. He earned huge money from this scam in ten years.
The Scam Changed his Lifestyle
Marco Mouly fortune was changed by that time. From the 20-meter square space he lived with his big family in Belleville, Marco Mouly then owned a 300-meter square apartment. He spent his nights in the high-esteemed palaces of France. But he was finally put behind bars in 2004 for six months. However, “the heist of the century” was yet to happen.
“The heist of the century”
The European Commission enacted emission quotas for companies in October 2008 to combat climate change. European companies could exchange these quotas between themselves according to their carbon emission quantities. What Mouly Marco did was buy tax-free rights for CO2 emission for fictitious companies abroad and resell them with VAT in France. It’s needless to mention that he kept the VAT for himself. He was successful in continuing the scam till he earned 283 million euros due to a well-oiled system established with his friends.
Marco Mouly had bank accounts in Hong Kong, Cyprus, and Latvia to extort these millions of euros.
The Ever-changing Marco Mouly Fortune
From buying Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, an Eiffel Tower-facing apartment, and a restaurant priced at six million euros to ending up in prison, Marco Mouly fortune kept changing rapidly.
He was able to escape for five months and then was sent behind bars in 2016. The French state owes Mouly 283 million euros, the money he laundered through the biggest scam in France.
Marco Mouly Netflix Documentary
Marco Mouly once again came into the spotlight when the famous streaming platform Netflix offered to tell his story through a documentary. But how did the Marco Mouly Netflix documentary happen when he was still in prison? Because Marco was in his semi-freedom then, staying behind bars at night only. The result is that “the king of the scam” is one of the most popular documentaries streaming on Netflix.
The documentary is about how Marco was brought up, his taboo-less life, and how he bought happiness with illegally-earned money without hesitation. How he did all this with ease makes the story extraordinary. The Netflix documentary reveals the behind-the-scenes of this VAT fraud.
As Marco is not enjoying a high standard of living, the Netflix documentary offered him a chance to re-live his extravagant life while he told his story.
Mouly is a Free-thinker
Marco stated that he wanted to free his mother from monetary problems and therefore vowed to achieve something big at any cost. After he succeeded, he said he never wanted to hide his luxurious lifestyle. Mouly showed off his lavish life, which was all about high-profile parties, too-expensive houses, and cars. He continued to live that life until imprisonment. Even he accepted in an interview that he couldn’t promise to stay away from scams in the future.
How is Marco Mouly Now?
Marco’s heritage is low now due to huge debt to the state. Though he promised to repay those 283 million euros, it doesn’t seem he will be able to do it. Additionally, he was charged with being involved in a criminal offense between 2015 and 2017.
He was again prisoned for twenty-four hours, being accused of extortion. No doubt, Marco is far from his dream life, as his past isn’t over yet. Certainly, he can’t have good fortune, at least soon.
But this misfortune never stops Marco Mouly from being an ideal example of showmanship. He loves to do anything and everything openly, even if it’s not a fair deal. That is Marco Mouly, a person true to himself and always intending to draw the limelight.
