Few will have the popular octopus in mind when thinking of frauds and gastronomic scams, more given to luxury products such as wines and spirits, truffles, caviar or Iberian products. And yet, a French company has been deceived by a Galician who charged around 100,000 euros for more than ten tons of octopus cool that they never reached their destination. A round business that also appeared by chance.
It was the year 2019 when the fish import company Antoine Abchée et Fils gave the name of TL Peche Sarla company registered in Mauritania headed by Jose Benito R.B., Galician at the time residing in Tomiño (Pontevedra). The French were groping octopus suppliers in large numbers, and the Spaniard seemed to be the person they were looking for. But it would all turn out to be a scam that would end in court.
It has been this month of February when the aforementioned José Benito RB has sat on the bench of the National audience to face the demand of the gala company. As detailed The countrythe magistrates show no doubt that the defendant is guilty of fraudsince he never had the intention of supplying the agreed product, and for which he received almost 100,000 euros.
The defendant cared until the minimum detail in his plan to convince the commercial director of the French company, present at the trial, and his colleagues. After contacting the company, supposedly Mauritanian TL Peche Sarl, by mail and by telephone, the French came to meet José Benito RB in the African country itself so that he could show them the installationsthen empty.
The Galician convinced them that they were in “biological arrest”, but that he could easily supply them with the octopus they needed. Both parties even came to see each other at an international fish fair in Brussels, where there was no sign of any booth of the company, but the defendant seemed to move like fish in the water of the world with such security that he gave them complete confidence.
In June 2019 the first and only order from the French to José Benito. They closed the operation in a hotel in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: almost 100,000 euros for more than ten tons of octopus. But the shipment of cephalopods would never arrive.
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After giving them a lot of delays and making all kinds of excuses, “absurd” in the opinion of the magistrates, the French businessmen ended up despair, finally taking the matter to court. José Benito RB, although he can appeal, is finally sentenced to two years in jailto a fine of 1,080 euros and to return the money collected plus interest.
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