Marco Mouly, central figure in the carbon tax scam, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for fraudulent insolvency

On November 12, 2024, Marco Mouly, a key player in the carbon tax fraud, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Paris court, in his absence. The 59-year-old, who was recently released from prison in March following the partial revocation of a suspended sentence dating back to 2019, had been held in custody before being released on November 2.

The court pointed out that the offences with which he was charged had been committed in a state of legal recidivism, demonstrating that Mouly “had clearly not learned the lessons” of his previous convictions. The new charges included the falsification of his copyrights, notably on his book “La Cavale” (2022), as well as the concealment of income from influencer activities. He was also accused of setting up a fictitious company, SAS I Trade, with no real economic activity, and of misusing the company’s funds.

The court criticized the ingenuity and duplicity of the accused, who had set up a “deception” to mislead the prison authorities, by creating a false registered office in order to conceal his activities. The judges also noted the particular nature of the fraud and its impact on the company as a whole.

In 2017, Mouly had already been sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and a fine of one million euros as part of the carbon tax fraud affair, a vast swindle linked to the pollution rights market, in which he had been implicated along with several other accomplices. He was also collectively fined over 283 million euros by the French State.