Monaco’s criminal court has upheld the acquittal of two Italians accused of a major fraud against Monaco Telecom, local French-Language daily Monaco-Matin reports.
The two defendants were suspected of having benefited from a loophole in the Monaco Telecom system in order to receive a partial repayment of the sums generated by premium calls. The Monegasque operator also lost its claim for substantial damages and costs of more than €1,000,000.
The alleged fraud by an entity called Publiweb was reported to the Monaco Police in September, 2011, and involved a total of 2,329,882 minutes of premium-rate phone calls for which Publiweb received a rebate of €0.435 per minute.
One of the accused, a resident of Turin, said that he used Monaco Telecom because it was cheaper than Orange, but that there was nothing illegal about the operation. His co-defendant said that the large amount of money found on his bank account had come from selling apartments in Italy,
Lawyers acting for Monaco Telecom had claimed that the mass re-routing of premium rate calls broke a signed contract the telecom provider.