Employment scam suspect ‘stuck’ in Greece

The extradition of Tunisian Mohamed Ben Hasen, aka Yiorgos Krasopoulos, who allegedly scammed some 430 Cypriots into paying him €620 each for a plane ticket to France, where he had supposedly landed them jobs in construction, has been caught up in the backlog of the Greek judiciary, reports said on Friday.

Ben Hasen, 61, was reported in August to have been the man behind a company that was set up in Larnaca as an employment agency – G. Krasopoulos International Ltd – in June 2013.

He was later found to have had a fake ID showing him as Yiorgos Krasopoulos, a Greek national.

The company managed to scam more than 400 Cypriots – mainly builders, carpenters, and painters – into paying €620 each on the promise they would be given work in building an apartment complex in France.

Through advertising in newspapers and online, Ben Hasen was able to defraud his Cypriot victims alone out of almost €300.000.

The scam was so elaborate that applicants for the French job were even given a list of personal effects they were to bring with them to France.

They were also promised a few days’ stay in a hotel nearby the construction site in Lille, France, and a salary of €1,000 per month.

The case came to light in September 2013, when 72 of the victims got stuck in France and called back home for help. They were repatriated by the state after realising there had never been a job – or a hotel room – waiting for them.

Police investigations at the time found that Ben Hasen had been arrested in 1978 in Cyprus for receiving money under false pretences.

Last August, Greek authorities arrested Ben Hasen – or Krasopoulos – and Cyprus requested his extradition.

As it turned out, however, he had run a similar scam in Greece, too, and the Greek police notified authorities back in Cyprus that he would be tried for forgery and criminal impersonation and serve any sentence in Greece, before he could be extradited.

There have been no developments since, as Hasem’s trial in Greece has not even started yet.

 

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