Philippe Stanislas Antoine Wasila has the police on his trail. This Frenchman indeed has the bad privilege of having been added to Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted fugitives, the European criminal police agency announced on Tuesday.
This suspects this fugitive of “falsification of administrative documents and trafficking in false administrative documents, laundering of the proceeds of crime, organized or armed theft, fraud”.
A polyglot fugitive
The man originally sought by Luxembourg, the country where he was born, is 57 years old. According to his Europol file, he speaks English, French, Greek, German, Italian and Luxembourgish.
In 2013 and 2014, Philippe Wasila “allegedly defrauded investors of approximately 5.4 million euros by falsely presenting himself as a successful businessman and lawyer,” details the European agency. In order to successfully gain the trust of potential investors, he notably adopted a lavish lifestyle, presenting himself as a wealthy businessman. His technique was then to explain “being the director of a so-called investment fund, promising substantial returns through an innovative project involving the development of an autonomous drone”.
And what appears to be a scam worked. Europol indicates that Philippe Wasila convinced several investors to entrust him with funds, assuring them that their money would be invested in this promising project. “However, it has since emerged that the funds invested were never allocated to the drone project.” Instead, the Frenchman “established a network of opaque companies and foreign bank accounts to siphon off investors’ money, using the funds to support his private lifestyle.”
An international arrest warrant issued in April
The investigation notably revealed that the current fugitive was neither a licensed lawyer nor an investment manager registered in Luxembourg or any other jurisdiction. The so-called investment fund has never been recognized by the Luxembourg financial regulator. On April 17, 2024, a European arrest warrant and an international arrest warrant were therefore issued against him.
In an article dated Tuesday, Le Figaro specifies that his last publication on Facebook “dates from October 11”. On this social network, “there have been a proliferation of photographs of classic cars to this day”. Since then, he has not been found.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
