Cyprus seeks extradition of fake job scammer

Cyprus has called for the extradition of a Tunisian man, who posed as a Greek businessman and deceived more than 450 unemployed Greek Cypriots into paying him money in return for fake jobs abroad, following his arrest in Greece.

Sixty-one-year-old Mohamed Ben Hasen was arrested around ten days ago in Greece following the international arrest warrant Cypriot authorities had issued in 2013, but he objected to his extradition to Cyprus.

Cypriot authorities have to wait for 72 days, as the law stipulates, for an answer from the Greek authorities over whether he is to be sent to Cyprus to stand trial.

Police could not on Wednesday provide more information as to his whereabouts prior to his arrest.

Ben Hasen, who had a fake Greek ID under the name Georgios Krasopoulos, was linked to a company that was set up in Larnaca as an employment agency, G Krasopoulos International Ltd, in June 2013. The company scammed 470 Greek Cypriots – mainly builders, carpenters, and painters – who had paid him €620 each, with the promise they would be given work in the construction industry in France. The company’s central offices were in Larnaca but had branches in Limassol and Dherynia.

The case came to light in September 2013 when 72 people, who got stuck in France after falling for the scam, had called for help and were repatriated by the state after realising that there was no job waiting for them.

The company was advertising in newspapers and on the internet that it was looking to hire people to work on a building site in Lille in France. Between June and September, the 470 people all signed contracts and paid €620, bringing the amount scammed to around €290,000.

The men had signed documents with the firm saying they would get one-way plane tickets to France, a few days’ worth of hotel stay and a salary of €1,000 a month.

Following the reports, police had discovered that Ben Hasen had been arrested in 1978 in Cyprus for receiving money under false pretences.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.