Israeli police have arrested three men accused of swindling a businessman out of €8m (£6.9m) by impersonating the French foreign minister and building a replica of his office, reports The Guardian.
The three Franco-Israelis are accused of passing themselves off as cabinet minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in emails and video calls to extract the money, claiming it was for cover operations and ransom money to release hostages held by Islamic extremists.
The men, aged between 37 and 47, were allegedly caught making a call to their victim in an apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv in February by police and members of Israel’s international crimes unit Lahav 433.
“They called, sent mails and sometimes used the video call application Skype to pretend to be for the minister himself,” a police source told French journalists.
Investigators say they have been tracking similar scams since 2015. This one began last September when the alleged fraudsters began calling company chiefs from France’s stock exchange, the CAC 40, claiming they were discreetly seeking funds to help to pay ransoms for hostages held in Mali and Syria. Around 40 executives were approached, as well as several embassies and consulates.