Insurance: Paris prosecutor’s office demands judicial liquidation of Indexia

Indexation on the edge of the abyss. The Paris prosecutor’s office has demanded the judicial liquidation of four companies in the galaxy of insurance brokers, including the holding company Indexia Group, the prosecutor’s office told AFP this Friday.

The group, led by Sadri Fegayer, was known for selling insurance for phones and multimedia products to Fnac Darty through its company Sfam, which was accused of improper deductions between 2017 and 2019.

Applications for judicial liquidation against the companies Indexia Group, Indexia Développement, Hubside and Hubside Recycle will be heard at a hearing at the Paris commercial court on May 22, the prosecutor’s office said, confirming the information to Les Échos.

SFAM is in turmoil

On April 24, it was a historical unit of the holding company SFAM, which was subject to compulsory liquidation by the Paris Commercial Court at the request of Urssaf Rhône-Alpes, which claimed receivables amounting to approximately 11.76 million euros.

Accused of improperly debiting the accounts of thousands of clients, the multimedia insurance broker has been beset by proceedings since an initial fraud investigation into deceptive commercial practices, which resulted in a €10 million criminal award in 2019.

A second investigation by the DGCCRF, also into fraudulent commercial practices, resulted in the transfer to the Paris Criminal Court of not only SFAM, but also six of the group’s companies and its CEO. They will be tried at the end of September. The consumers also filed a civil lawsuit.

For many years, SFAM (French Multi-Risk Insurance Company) acted as an insurance broker, especially with Fnac Darty between 2017 and 2019. Consumers could purchase phone or computer insurance, often for €15 per month. Over the years, hundreds of people have seen increases in royalties from SFAM and other Indexia subsidiaries (including Foriou, Hubside and Serena) without signing the amendment.

In early April, Fnac Darty announced that it had filed a complaint against its former partner “to force (SPAM company) resolve customer complaints by paying fines. At the same time, the situation was also tense inside Indexia, which was accused of late payments by dozens of employees and former employees of the group in Roman-sur-Isère in Ardèche, where the company is headquartered.