The Paris commercial court examines on Wednesday the requests for judicial liquidation of the holding company and three companies of the Indexia group, during a crucial hearing for the future of the insurance broker surrounded by legal proceedings. This closed-door hearing is being held almost a month after the liquidation of the historic entity and one of the group’s main subsidiaries, SFAM, which had specialized for fifteen years in insurance associated with the purchase of a telephone or computer.
SFAM’s debt to Urssaf Rhône-Alpes, which had sued it before the Paris commercial court, amounted to more than 14.3 million euros, according to the judgment pronounced on April 24. Following this decision, the Paris public prosecutor’s office filed requests for judicial liquidation for the parent company of SFAM, Indexia Group, and three other companies, Indexia Développement, Hubside and Hubside Recycle (creation of websites, sale and reconditioning of multimedia devices, Hubside.Store stores). The court is expected to make its decisions early this afternoon.
The companies targeted are part of the myriad of companies and subsidiaries created by businessman Sadri Fegaier, who presents himself as “a pure autodidact” who became “the youngest billionaire in France”. Legal setbacks have been piling up for him and his empire since an initial fraud repression investigation, which ended in 2019 with a criminal settlement of 10 million euros accepted by the SFAM.
Having become Indexia, the group was the subject of new reports from consumers denouncing undue deductions and a second investigation by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). The investigations resulted in the 44-year-old CEO and six of his companies being referred to the Paris Criminal Court. They will appear from September 23 for deceptive commercial practices concerning in particular the termination of insurance contracts for telephones and computers.
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During a procedural hearing on Tuesday, consumers explained that they had tried to terminate their contract after having noticed debits which had multiplied without having given their consent or having never even signed for an insurance contract. For some, the damage reached tens of thousands of euros. At the same time as the criminal trial, aggrieved customers brought civil proceedings against Indexia group companies and certain of its insurers to obtain reimbursement of sums unduly taken.